Liverpool head coach Arne Slot accepts the amount of goals his side have conceded is “ridiculous” but stressed his players have not lost the appetite for a fight ahead of the Champions League visit of PSV Eindhoven (Live on RTÉ2/Player).
Saturday’s 3-0 loss to Nottingham Forest was the eighth defeat in 11 matches and they are regularly being exposed defensively, especially at set-pieces.
Statistics show the number of individual duels players have won has dropped off a cliff from last season but Slot said that was not a fair reflection of their performances.
He did acknowledge, however, that his players are switching off at crucial times after being lulled into a false sense of security by the amount of possession opposition teams are allowing them to have.
Asked to describe the current situation Slot said: “Ridiculous, almost. Something I didn’t expect to be in, not at any club I worked at, let alone if you are manager of Liverpool.
“That is unbelievable. It is unexpected for the club, for me, for everyone, but if you ever needed to face this maybe this is the best club to face it because the harder it gets the more we are together, the more we are trying to do the things Liverpool usually achieves.
“These situations, it’s not really nice is it? I can tell you that. To be honest, I didn’t expect myself to be in this situation, with the way we go about it tactically and the quality of players we have.
“You would never have expected us to have lost so much. For sure I take the responsibility and feel guilty for it. We’re busy working on it.”
Ahead of the Champions League visit of PSV Eindhoven the players have been criticised for lacking the heart for a battle when the chips are down and, after the defeat to Forest, captain Virgil van Dijk called for the squad to take more individual responsibility.
“In moments of games we have lost too many duels”
Slot does not agree his players are shirking their responsibility but believes the tactics being employed against them are resulting in players lacking concentration at crucial times.
Asked whether they had lost the ability to fight, Slot said: “No, no we haven’t. But in moments of games we have lost too many duels.
“I think the last game we played we had 75% possession, which means you only have to defend 25% of the time and I think in and around our box we only had to defend four times.
“If I have to defend for half-an-hour I am in defend mode, so I just to throw myself at every ball, but when our defenders and maybe even including the goalkeeper are thinking about ball possession and then in the moment they have to defend we are not as switched on as we should be.”
Despite their domestic struggles, heading into this week’s Liverpool are eighth in the Champions League table, three points behind leaders Bayern Munich, and currently in the final spot for automatic qualification for the last 16.
However, playmaker Florian Wirtz (above) has not recovered from a muscle injury in time to be involved.
Of the four Reds players currently injured, only the Germany international had a chance of returning from a muscle problem sustained on international duty, but the £100m (€114m) signing was not with the rest of the squad for the lunchtime open session.
Right-backs Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong are still two weeks or more from potentially being available, which continues to give head coach Arne Slot a problem in defence.
Midfielders Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones shared the duties in Saturday’s embarrassing 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest but poor results and weak defensive performances have made a case for Joe Gomez, primarily a centre-back but who can play on the right, to start.
Slot has been cautious with the 28-year-old, who has completed the full 90 minutes only twice since St Stephen’s Day, and his only start since getting injured in the FA Cup defeat to Plymouth in February came in a Carabao Cup win over Southampton.
Watch Liverpool v PSV in the Champions League on Wednesday from 7.45pm on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on the RTÉ News App and on rte.ie/sport