ReactionArne Slot press conference: Fulham draw, Ekitike injury, Wirtz fitness and more

The Reds were denied all three points at Craven Cottage on Sunday afternoon as there were goals for either team in added time at the end of the contest.

Fulham had gone ahead via Harry Wilson in the first half, before Florian Wirtz levelled ahead of the hour mark, with both confirmed via VAR intervention having been initially ruled out for offside.

• Read our match report from Craven Cottage

Cody Gakpo then struck from close range in the fourth minute of injury time, only for the visitors' lead to be cancelled out by a stunning goal from substitute Harrison Reed.

Slot provided his reaction to and analysis of the game when speaking to the media afterwards - read on to see what he had to say.

On the result and the late Fulham goal...

I think if you are not a part of Liverpool and you don't follow us every game then you think you win it. But unfortunately, I am experiencing this for months now that the first chance the other team gets and the only chance they got in the first half led to a goal. That's one thing we usually see with us. The second thing we see a lot is that that the other team scores a goal you don't expect in extra time, so this is then a surprise.

On showing great 'resilience' to make it 2-1 late on...

We showed great resilience from the start if you miss out on so many attacking options and you come here against Fulham. They are a good team having good ideas about football and we hardly conceded a chance against them. I think they had one other chance in the second half when we maybe messed it up a little bit ourselves when they had a chip on the bar. But for the rest I think we controlled the game and yes, I would love us to create more from our ball possession.

I can tell you this. My philosophy of football hasn't changed this year compared to all the seasons I was a manager before. But we have to do it with the players that are available. I think today 11 very good football players were on the pitch. Maybe not all of them in their normal position. But in the first half they controlled the game and just before [Fulham] scored, we had exactly the same chance from Cody Gakpo, which went on the other side of the post. In the second half, two disallowed goals, two goals scored and a header onto the bar. So, [there] are things to like - but the result is again probably not what we deserved.

On whether his players were 'guilty' of dropping too deep for Reed's late goal...

That is true, but we've conceded throw-ins and set-pieces quite a lot this season. We have a certain set-up, which the players did, and if the long throw comes in, I think we had the box very well covered. Ideally indeed when then they don't take it long, we come out earlier and faster, but you have to give credit to that incredible strike as well because what are the odds that a ball from over there goes in? I don't think a lot. I think xG-wise this is not a big chance, but we do concede.

We made an offensive substitution to win the game with bringing Federico Chiesa in and then a few times this season we kept it like it was and then we conceded against Leeds and then you ask yourself if you should've brought in an extra defender. The moment we concede the throw-in [we have] Joe Gomez, who is really good in the air for a long throw, but they took it short and we were underloaded over there. But again, I don't think you see this goal being scored a lot. You have to give credit to the player as well.

On whether he changed anything at half-time after 'not creating' in the first half...

I don't completely agree with you but it's not that we had chance after chance. That's obvious. I see a lot of football, when we went in here, I saw a game of football, hardly conceded a chance from both ends in the first half. This is how the Premier League usually works; I think more in the second half it becomes a bit more open and there are more chances, more moments where you create chances. We're not the exception to that. I think we had a few good moments in the first half where we were close to creating or we did create.

I can remember a cross that Curtis Jones was close to scoring [from], I can remember a shot from Cody Gakpo deflected and a one-on-one with the goalkeeper from Cody Gakpo. I would love to create more but if you play with the amount of midfielders we played with and one attacker against a 5-4-1 of Fulham in an away game, I don't know if you can expect then us creating chance after chance. Overall, I think we've created enough chances to win the game and we did very well by limiting them to maybe one, one-and-a-half chances, but the end result is still 2-2 and that's what it is about in football.

On overall chance creation from his side...

Like I said, I would love to create five times as many chances as we do now and not concede a chance at all. But I do know in the period of time when we were playing maybe either with different players or more open, I don't think we created that many more chances, but we conceded much more. Unfortunately, we don't concede a lot at the moment in terms of chances, but goal-wise maybe not a lot has changed. Like I said, I didn't change as a manager: I would love to play with eight attackers if that is possible defensively as well, but if those eight attackers don't defend enough then it's hard to win a game of football. But we don't have eight attackers, so that's not possible.

On the fitness of Hugo Ekitike and Wirtz...

Yes, [Hugo] travelled because he felt something during the training session, so he went for an MRI scan and we got the result when we were flying. We were hoping it was just a bit of DOMS, which he also had. Why? Because Alex [Isak] has been out and since Alex is out [Hugo] doesn't play 70 minutes or 60 minutes or sometimes gets a bit of rest. He has to play 80 or 90 minutes every single game for the first time in his life at Premier League level, for the first time in his life without a winter break, for the first time in his life at Champions League level. So not a surprise he then gets a bit tired and gets DOMS.

We were hoping it was only DOMS and then we could have used him maybe as a sub, but unfortunately, we saw a little bit more and then you cannot take a risk. Florian had the same last week when we put him in an MRI scan and there was only DOMS, so he didn't have anything. But he is also experiencing this programme for the first time and if I don't have that many players, I would like the ones I do have available and playing as many minutes as possible, but realistically. That's what I tried to do today.