Slot admits he is not thinking about the title race

If anyone told even the most pessimistic Liverpool fans that their club would be below Manchester United after 11 games into the new Premier League season, they would probably just laugh. But after last night’s 3-0 defeat from Manchester City, nobody is laughing. Not only the Reds are below the Red Devils, but they are currently eight at the table, eight points away from Arsenal and with five defeats already. The expensive June signings are totally irrelevant (apart from Hugo Ekitike) and the team is in deep crisis.

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So when the press asked Liverpool boss Arne Slot about the title race, they got an honest answer.

“It feels there’s too many, and the last thing I should think about now is the title race. We should first focus on getting results, result and result after result before we can even think about that. The reality is we are eighth now, one team is quite far ahead although City is four points away from Arsenal. The rest is quite close. I said last season many times even when we were leading, the best way to judge the league table is after 38 games, and the next best way to is to judge it after 19 games because you have all faced the same opponents. Our first focus should be on getting results. The last thing we should focus on is the title race. That was something we could do last season but also not the previous two seasons. We need to improve and that’s obvious” admitted the Dutchman.

Liverpool was totally outmatched by City in a 3-0 win, but the question mark will remain over Van Dijk’s equalizer which was denied due to a suspicious offside. Soon after that it was 2-0 and the game was over. The rule on the field (Andy Robertson adjudged to be interfering with play) was dubious, but Slot tried not to take that as an example.

“I would like to emphasise the fact being 2-0 down at half-time was a fair reflection of how the game went. But I’ve been on opposite side when my team was much better than the other team and 1-0 up and maybe not scored the second one and the other team gets a set-piece and it’s 1-1 and all of a sudden things change. This can happen in football. For me it was a wrong decision that this goal was not allowed, but I will not say because of that we lost the game. After 1-1, if City kept on playing like they did then we would have struggled as well” said Slot. Luckily for him, the international break is on the way.