Liverpool beaten at Brighton
Liverpool's dismal defence of their Premier League title continued on Saturday with a 2-1 defeat to Brighton at the Amex Stadium. Welbeck bagged a brace for the Seagulls on another tough afternoon for Slot's men. Liverpool also saw summer signing Hugo Ekitike forced off early in the match with an injury, joining key stars such as Alisson and Mohamed Salah in the treatment room. The defeat leaves Liverpool in fifth place in the table but will raise more doubts over their ability to secure a place in the Champions League for next season.
Slot hurt by Brighton defeat
Slot shared his thoughts after the game, telling reporters: "Of course now looking at the league table, this loss hurts a lot and it should hurt us a lot, But the main problem is that we are in this position because we dropped a point at Wolves in the last minute from a deflected shot. That [Tottenham] goal last week in the 90th minute is, I would say, even a bigger problem than losing away at Brighton."
The Liverpool boss also shared his thoughts on reaching double figures for defeats, adding: "It says a few things. First of all, it says how and what great teams Liverpool has had in the last 10 years, I think. And a great manager, by the way, as well. I could come up [and] tell you all the reasons why we've lost 10 times this season. Now one of them we just heard – late goals – and I think today sums it all up in terms of injury problems this season. To go without three great goalscorers, it's never helpful for any team. And again, the right full-back position... but, OK, it's not my job to find excuses – my job is to find answers. That's what I tried to do again today and it worked out, in my opinion, not too bad in the first 45 minutes because we were playing with them and we were, in my opinion, close. They were a few times close, we were two times close. In the second half, they were the better team."
What went wrong for Liverpool?
Slot was asked what went wrong for his side against Brighton and replied: "What went wrong started off with the lead-up to this game, as so many times happened this season. When we played a very good game and we thought we could bring that level to the next game, or even better, we had Mo Salah injured and we have Alisson [Becker] injured. After two minutes Hugo Ekitike [is] out, so that has happened so many times to us this season and again now. What happened a lot this season is also that the first chance of the other team immediately went in. But Brighton deserved to win if you look at the second half, because in the first half I think it was an equal game but in the second half Brighton were the better team on the pitch and they deserved to win."
What comes next?
Liverpool may just be grateful for the international break which will get them time to rest and recover some of their injured stars. The Reds return to action on April 4th against Manchester City in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.