Arne Slot hit out at Manchester United’s defensive approach after Liverpool slumped to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions with a 2-1 loss at Anfield.
The Dutchman said his side were made to chase the game against a ‘low block’ and a barrage of ‘long balls’ after conceding inside 62 seconds to Bryan Mbeumo.
Cody Gakpo drew the hosts level midway through the second half, but Harry Maguire’s 84th-minute header condemned the champions to their third successive Premier League defeat.
‘It is always difficult to play against a team that defends in a low block and mainly plays the long ball,’ Slot told Sky Sports.
‘It makes it even more difficult when you go one down after one minute when one of our players are on the floor.
‘If you would have told me before the game that against the low block, against so many long balls, that we would have created as many chances as we did I would have not expected us to lose. But that is what we did.
Arne Slot hit out at Manchester United’s defensive approach after Liverpool slumped to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions
The Dutchman said his side were made to chase the game against a ‘low block’ and a barrage of ‘long balls’ after conceding inside 62 seconds to Bryan Mbeumo
‘We had enough chances to score more than one goal, but on the other hand again conceding two and one of the two was the set piece.’
Slot’s frustration grew as he compared Sunday’s loss to recent defeats against Crystal Palace and Chelsea, pointing to a recurring weakness from set pieces that has blunted Liverpool’s title defence.
Asked whether the pattern felt familiar, he replied: ‘Yes. Of course we concede maybe one or two extra chances apart from the goals we conceded but you always have to take extra risk when you are 1-0 down.
‘Taking that into account, we hardly conceded a chance and we are waiting for us to score a goal, we have to defend the set piece.
‘Like against Palace and a few other moments this season, we’ve conceded on a set piece and that is hard to take because it is very difficult to win a game of football if you have a negative balance on set pieces.’
Liverpool’s early setback came when Virgil van Dijk collided with Alexis Mac Allister, leaving the midfielder floored as Mbeumo raced through to score past Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Slot’s side struck the woodwork twice through Gakpo before the Dutchman finally equalised, but Maguire’s late header restored United’s lead.
The result leaves Liverpool third in the table, four points behind Arsenal, having led the Premier League by five before the international break.
The pattern of the loss followed defeats in the Reds’ previous two league matches against Crystal Palace and Chelsea
United, meanwhile, recorded their first victory at Anfield since 2016 and their second straight league win under Ruben Amorim.
Liverpool now face a crucial Champions League tie in midweek before travelling to Brentford next weekend, seeking to arrest a slide that has stalled their title defence and exposed frailties from dead-ball situations.
