Slot responds to slip-up claims after Liverpool draw at Villa Park

Slot refuses to buy into slip-up claims after Liverpool’s draw

Liverpool seemed to be walking away with the Premier League crown a few weeks ago, although two winless results in their last three games in the English top flight have raised questions regarding their consistency. Last week, Pep Guardiola also pointed out how they could not finish with anything more than 99 points as he highlighted City’s century in 2017/18.

The draw versus Aston Villa on Wednesday’s meeting means the Reds can hit a maximum of 97 points this year, but with the congested list of fixtures and a relatively narrow squad depth than Arne Slot would’ve liked, it is debatable whether or not the Reds will win 100% of the points up for grab between now and the end of the season.

With recent form in mind, Slot was asked in his post-match press conference whether he believes if teams are more likely to slip-up in the second half of the campaign, to which he said the following via the official Liverpool website.

“I think every game has its own story. I think in terms of performance we weren’t brilliant at all at Everton but for obvious reasons we were very unlucky to come away with a draw over there. Today, I liked our performance a lot – much, much, much more than I liked our performance against Wolves – from what I like the most: playing the ball, bringing the ball out from the back, creating chances. So, no, I don’t feel like that at all. I think if you go away at Villa that’s always a difficult fixture. If you start the season you say, ‘Oh, Villa away, that’s a difficult one, [Manchester] City away, that’s a difficult one,’ so performance-wise, not a dip at all today in my opinion, but you might disagree.”

While it depends from club to club, and particularly on squad strength whether or not form actually dips in the second half of the season, Liverpool have little to worry about, at least as far as the Premier League is concerned. Like Slot said, their performance against Aston Villa deserved all three points, which ideally should have been clinched were it not for Darwin Nunez’s miss.

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In the Champions League, the Reds are expected to have an easier route considering they finished in the top two of the league phase standings, and having already been knocked out of the FA Cup, there could only be a maximum of 20 matches left for the team over the next three months – a very manageable number considering the otherwise cramped calendar.