Slaughter: I don’t think the team wasted so many opportunities when Klopp was coaching

Hupu News on October 20th Premier League, Liverpool 1-2 Manchester United. After the game, Liverpool coach Arne Slott attended the pre-match press conference.

Cody Gakpo and Salah both had multiple chances. Gakpo even had three good chances, but failed to convert them into goals. Do you think the team is a little bit luckier than last season's stable level?

Sloter: Gakpo did score a goal today, and the team still has many threatening moments - we can't just focus on those great opportunities, some crosses almost posed a threat.

In fact, if you say "almost lucky" when you win, people will believe it; if you say it now when you lose, it may be considered an excuse. But objectively speaking, in the 2-2 draw last season, Harry Maguire also had a better opportunity than today but failed to grasp it, and today he scored.

Gakpo's chances today, apart from those he created himself, may not be the most critical - the goal he scored is the most important, and he also had a shot that almost hit the goal post.

At present, as you said, the team is a little unlucky, but we must prove as soon as possible that we can do better than now.

Are you worried about Liverpool's performance? Do you think this is just a recent fluctuation in status, or is there a more serious problem?

Sloter: It depends on whether we can continue to perform like this. In football, once a team starts losing - 1, 2, 3, 4 games - there are always the same problems, for example, some players may feel that they should have played longer, or that they should not have been substituted. But at the same time, the team has to keep moving forward.

At present, one thing is very positive: the starting players can create a lot of opportunities; the substitute players can also bring the correct attitude when they come on the field; the players coming off the field will support their teammates on the sidelines, for example, hoping that Maguire's goal will be offside, and at the same time cheer for their teammates to try to equalize 2-2. These are all good signs, and perhaps normal for a team that won the championship last season.

But we must continue to do so. I still can't guarantee that we can create eight or nine great chances on Wednesday night like we did against Crystal Palace and today. Perhaps it would be a better choice to create fewer opportunities but increase the conversion rate.

Do you think Mohamed Salah also faces difficulties at the start of this season?

Sloat: I think this is normal. In the first five or six games of the season, everyone was asking about the new players; now they are starting to pay attention to the performance of individual players. I don't think this is the time to discuss individual performance.

As a team, our performance is far from what we expected, and Liverpool should not be like this - at least not when I was coaching, and I think under Jurgen (Klopp), the team will not waste so many opportunities.

But like I said, Salah also had a good opportunity today. In addition to him, Gakpo had four or five chances, Hugo Jikitic also came close to scoring many times, and Alexander had a chance to face the goalkeeper alone in the first half. We had 10 corner kicks and our opponents only had 4, but we didn't take advantage of them and they scored.

Many recent games have proven that set pieces are crucial in football matches. We are good at creating opportunities through sports battles - I also said at Friday's press conference that we may be the team that creates the most opportunities in sports battles, and today's game also confirmed this.

But sports warfare is not the only way to win. Manchester United proved this today, and other teams also did it this weekend. For example, Chelsea won the game 3-0 with three set pieces.

Ask another question about Ryan Hrafenberch's injury. He seemed to want to continue playing, but kept shaking his head.

Slaughter: Yeah, I took him off because he sprained his ankle. As for whether his injury is cause for concern, we won't know until tomorrow. But we have to play again in two days - because we have three games in seven days, just like after the last international break.

The recovery time for the players is indeed very little, but fortunately we have more than one excellent midfielder.