LIVERPOOL, England (AP) – Liverpool players had an “honest” conversation after coach Arne Slott was embarrassed by a 3-0 losing streak that sent him into the club’s most difficult period since joining the club, forward Codi Gakpo said on Tuesday.
Liverpool have slumped from their best record in Slott’s first year as Premier League champions to their worst record of losing just eight of their last 11 games despite spending. $570 million A remarkable summer of spending, including signing Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak for club-record sums.
The Reds head into their Champions League match against PSV Eindhoven on Wednesday with a good result. Lost 3-0 at home They faced Nottingham Forest in the league on Saturday, having lost by the same score to Manchester City before the international break.
“I felt a bit embarrassed after the game,” Gakpo said of the result against Forest. “We lost 3-0 at home in front of our fans, so that’s not good. We know they’ll help us in any tough situation, but we have to give something back to them too.”
“I didn’t feel good, but the next few days I just…I don’t want to say I’m angry, but we’re trying to talk together and be honest with each other about what we have to do to perform better on the pitch. We also know that we have to come together and that’s what we’re going to strive for.”
Gakpo will face a team at Anfield, where he played from 2018 to 2023, leading the Dutch league by six points and aiming for a third consecutive top flight title.
It will certainly be another test for Liverpool’s creaky defense, who have conceded 20 goals in 12 Premier League games. Only four teams were allowed more admissions.
“The number of goals we conceded and the number of goals we conceded from set pieces (nine goals) is almost ridiculous for a club like us,” Slott said.
Injection to Gomez
Right-backs Jeremy Frimpong and Conor Bradley are currently unavailable, with a central defender in place. Giovanni Leoni Slott, who missed a year with a torn anterior cruciate ligament, said his team was down to five senior defenders during a busy year-end game.
One of them, Joe Gomez, who could fill in at right-back or centre-back, is battling knee problems and is not completely healthy.
This means Slott will have to play Ibrahima Konate every game and occasionally have to bring in important midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai as a right-back on an emergency basis, despite criticism from fans and pundits over the French centre-back’s recent performances.
Asked if Gomez would be able to play against PSV, Slott said: “Normally I don’t go into too much detail, but last week he had an injection in his knee, so it’s not like he doesn’t feel anything normally.”
“Apart from probably the decision I made to play in that position with Dom or another player, this also has something to do with him not being fully fit. That said, he’s in the group tomorrow as he was on Saturday. But (he) wasn’t able to train every last week.”
Liverpool’s performance in the Champions League is significantly better than in the Premier League.
The 1-0 win against Real Madrid last time out was Liverpool’s third win in four first-stage games, taking them to eighth place out of 36 clubs.
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