Time and again, Arne Slot described himself as “rational”. He can often seem the most sensible man in the strange world of Premier League management but his first taste of the Merseyside derby ended with Slot looking his most irrational, with Michael Oliver brandishing the red card after a post-match blast, and the subsequent referee’s report revealing that the Liverpool head coach told the official: “I will f***ing blame you if we don’t win the league.”
As Slot approaches a rematch – with Everton, not Oliver – the aim is to be the calm, measured winner who has taken his team to the brink of the Premier League title. “I am hoping I will act differently next time but I can’t promise,” he said. That Slot remains aggrieved by the events of injury-time at Goodison Park, with James Tarkowski’s 98th-minute equaliser leading to his loss of control, offers an insight into his psyche.
So, too, his reaction to the first back-to-back defeats of his reign. He has had 16 days to mull over the Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle, five more to assess the Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain. In the disappointment of Wembley, Slot argued Newcastle’s triumph had “nothing to do with running but only to do with duels”.
An international break may have brought a reappraisal from a rational man. Slot held a meeting with his players on Monday. “The message is as simple as it has always been: don’t accept you are outworked by a team, which we were against Newcastle, and if the stakes are so high, that is almost unacceptable,” he said. “It can happen in a season once or twice but it shouldn’t happen many times.” His answer, he said, was to “show them the work rate they have put in [in] many games in a row”.
Which, it was said at the time, may have been part of the problem. The sense at Wembley was that Newcastle was a game too far, that Slot had overworked his core players and underused some of the alternatives; that was symbolised when Liverpool’s goal came from a combination of substitutes, Federico Chiesa scoring from Harvey Elliott’s pass. Slot again seemed to concede his critics had a point. “Maybe, maybe, maybe, I made the biggest mistake by not rotating enough,” he said. He felt the days between the PSG and Newcastle games was sufficient to recover; the more pertinent point might be that he could have selected some fringe players for the Premier League clash against Southampton, which was sandwiched by the two ties against the French champions.
Slot’s standard answer tends to reference the men keeping them out of the team: in Chiesa’s case, a Mohamed Salah-shaped obstacle, for Elliott, the running machine that is Dominik Szoboszlai. Wataru Endo, yet to start a league game this season, has been sidelined by Ryan Gravenberch. He remained unused at Wembley.
“As long as I am here, you will be surprised if we are 1-0 or 2-0 down to bring in a player that has hardly ever scored a goal,” said Slot. “That would be a strange substitution.” And yet as the analyst in him reappraised the defeat, there was an acceptance that Endo could have been an asset. Liverpool lacked midfield control. “So all the attackers were in the team and maybe I have to agree that after 10 minutes I should take someone off to bring Wata in,” Slot said. “Maybe I made the wrong decision by not starting him, that’s better to say. But we will never know.”
All of which has a pertinence now, when Slot may face another scrap. Newcastle imposed their style upon Liverpool at Wembley. Everton have done likewise in twin troubles at Goodison Park, the first under Jurgen Klopp in April, the second in Slot’s derby debut. “Both games were exactly similar,” he reflected.
He drew lessons from February’s 2-2 draw, even if he was reluctant to reveal them. “If I tell you what I noticed that would not be smart for me to do,” he added. “That is not to make Everton wiser but maybe I should keep it like this.”
There were some things he could say. “We have to be better with the ball against Everton and that is the only thing we can control,” he explained. “Without the ball I think we did quite well. It is always difficult when you play against a team like Everton or Newcastle, they bring a lot of balls into your last line.” Liverpool conceded to a set-piece in both games. If dealing with an aerial assault is one imperative, there is a question if Slot can adjust, if he can prove more flexible in selection when required, if a sensible man can use his logic to change or a manager who has often conjured telling substitutions in matches can process his frustration to alter the direction of more matches.
The frequency with which, unprompted, Slot brought up the PSG tie showed that setbacks linger with him, that he is forever re-examining them. His explosion at the final whistle at Goodison showed a different side to him. It is hard to ascertain if Slot is a bad loser, simply because his defeats have been so rare. But after consecutive losses, Slot now faces a side who have thwarted him. Everton’s derby draw probably won’t cost Liverpool the league; he need not blame Oliver. But it will be instructive how he reacts after the worst week of his time at Anfield.
