Press conferenceArne Slot on Fulham clash and 'defining moment' of the season

The Reds return to home soil on Saturday afternoon having been beaten three times consecutively on the road.

The visit of the Cottagers comes three days before the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain, when Slot’s men will try to come back from 2-0 down on aggregate.

“I think that’s completely normal in the end of the season,” the head coach said at his pre-Fulham press conference on Friday, when asked about this being a ‘defining moment’ in the campaign.

“It’s not only for us, it’s for all the teams these are defining moments and periods of time.

“We’ve given ourselves not the best situation to be in, but as you said, Paris kept us alive so we’re still in that tie, and there are two massive, massive games in the league coming up as well and afterwards five more and hopefully a few more in the Champions League as well.

“But first the focus should be on Fulham and that’s where the focus is on now.”

Slot continued: “If there might be anything positive from the Paris Saint-Germain game, it is that we faced the champions of Europe and we’ve experienced that we were on that evening not at the level where we want to be; the good thing is that in four or five days we have another chance to show that we can be much more competitive than we were two days ago.

“But it also tells us if we want to keep improving, we have to keep playing at that level as well next season – and that means Champions League football. If you’ve experienced that two days ago, you want to be involved in that again next season to show that we can do even better than we did two days ago.

“That chance, we get in three days. But we also want to have that chance next season and therefore we have to perform in the league as well.

“That’s going to be interesting because yesterday was a recovery day and let’s see where a few of our players are, because I’m also not telling you for the first time that not all of our players are able and capable of playing three days later another intense game. Let’s see what the line-up brings this time.”

Fulham sit ninth in the Premier League table ahead of their trip to Merseyside and have taken 10 points from their last five outings.

When the clubs met in January at Craven Cottage, it ended in a dramatic 2-2 draw as Cody Gakpo’s stoppage-time goal was equalised by Harrison Reed’s long-range strike.

On what makes Fulham an impressive team, Slot replied: “As almost always in football, the quality of the players compared to the manager they are having.

“They are having a manager that is already working a long time with them and you can also see that when you see them play. Clear structure, clear identity of how they want to play.

“Mainly with the same players I think in the last two seasons that I’m here now and maybe even for longer, but I can’t really remember how it was three years ago.

“We played last season at home, when we got the red card, it was probably one of the best games we played last season – which sounds weird but with 10 men we were really good. Twice we were a goal down and twice we came back. It was a 2-2 draw in the end.

“This season, I said it many times but that game maybe summed up our season, it was unbelievable that we didn’t win that one. If you look at the moment we scored, not that we played an unbelievably good game over there.

“But I think I saw it yesterday, but it was the 94th minute that we scored the goal. So, how often it happened then that you don’t win the game? Unless it’s Liverpool this season, then it happens a few times more.”