ReactionPress conference: Arne Slot's verdict after Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
Read Arne Slot's reaction after Liverpool were beaten 2-1 late on away at Chelsea on Saturday evening.
Estevao scored in stoppage time of the Premier League contest at Stamford Bridge to secure victory for the hosts.
Cody Gakpo was on the scoresheet for the Reds as he netted an equaliser midway through the second half, cancelling out the early Moises Caicedo opener.
But the points would end up in the hands of the Blues when Estevao converted from close range with 96 minutes on the clock.
See what head coach Slot had to say in his post-match press conference...
On the result...
Another disappointing loss. That's clear. Another game similar to the Palace game, although the game was completely different because the playing style of both teams are completely different. But not similar to the Palace game where in the first half I think we played not our best football but still were able to create three big chances. They've only had one and they've immediately scored it, which was completely different to the Palace game, where Palace created a lot of chances in the first half.
And the second-half performance, like in Palace, I liked, we've created more than enough chances to score more than one goal – last week and today. I think there was a period of the game where I felt, 'Now we're going to win it.' We came a lot of times very close with chances but also with moments where we had four-versus-three in our favour, not outplaying it well enough in the last pass. And in the last 10 minutes, it was an end-to-end game, both teams could have won it. We didn't and Chelsea did.
On whether the team is still 'searching for balance'...
I think if you play the style we play – so a high press – and the style Chelsea plays – a high press – it would be a surprise if both teams, with the quality that both teams have, that they never play through your press, so that would be unrealistic. You go here to Stamford Bridge with them having eight injuries, so you're like, 'This can be positive, then they probably don't have the options from the bench.' But they did still have a few good options from the bench to impact the game. So it would be unrealistic to expect that if you play Chelsea – they want to play out from the back – that they never play through your press, as we played through their press as well.
On Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak building a connection…
The more they play together, the more they will connect. I think that's what you saw in the second half already a little bit from the start but especially after I had to take [Ibrahima] Konate off because he felt his quad, when Ryan [Gravenberch] started to play in that position, we were able to get our attackers much more in promising situations much more than in the first half. For me it wasn't the disconnection or the time we need for the forwards to do better. I think the first half was mainly that we had to be better in build-up and that's what we did more and more in the second half, and that's why we created also so many good moments, chances and moments that we could have created much more.
On how close he is to building this team in his 'ideal image'...
I think you are never close to your ideal. You have to work really hard to reach a certain level and then it's very hard in football because you also play against very good teams to keep that level going and what I mean with that is consistency. But it is clear we had our changes in the summer, players came in in different moments. Last week there's hardly been any training time and still we need to try to bring these players in. If the result would have been better today with a draw or a win – which was both possible, I don't say we deserved it, a draw we definitely deserved – then we would have had a great start to the season if you take into account everything what happened in the summer at Liverpool.
On rotating at centre-back…
How you can do this, that's not so easy to put someone else in. That's the way to rotate but if I rotate against Galatasaray, people complain that I rotate. So yeah, it is a risk. We were just talking about Konate, he's playing three games now in seven or eight days with a four-and-a-half-hour flight up and down. That's true. But that is the balance you need to find playing a tough game against Palace that play only long balls and every ball, every corner kick is dangerous, so you need long and strong defenders. And I think if you play Chelsea away, you also need two centre-backs. But when we were 1-0 down, I took the risk, if you want to call it like this, to play with a midfielder as a centre-back.
On Salah and whether the team is 'missing his cutting edge'...
That's then interesting: did he create today so much because he didn't play during the week or did he miss the chances because he missed a bit of sharpness that he could have had if he would have played against Galatasaray? We will never know. What I like is that we brought him many times in the position he would like to be in and I would like him to be in, because he's shown in his career and since I'm here that in those positions he can score goals. And I think today he had many opportunities to do what he's done so often. But he is a human being and it's not like every chance he gets is always a goal – we feel sometimes it is because of what he's done last season and so many times. But he can also have a game where he has chances and a lot of times in promising positions and doesn't have a goal or an assist.