Aston Villa v Liverpool recap, video highlights<\/a><\/p>\nArne Slot\u2019s Reds are still in good position to reach the UCL via a top-five place, but a win would\u2019ve been enough on Friday and Liverpool never really looked like that was in the cards.<\/p>\n
So how did the underfire Slot see it ahead of a huge final week game at Anfield?<\/p>\n
Arne Slot reaction \u2014 Liverpool \u2018under full pressure\u2019 for Week 38 after failing to seal Champions League spot<\/p>\n
Things fell apart after unfortunate third goal? \u201cThat was definitely unfortunate if you want to call it that. It was a moment we were in a good moment. Similar in the first half because it came in a spell where we played acceptable. When you concede at 2-1 in the way we did, it led to a well-deserved win to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
You had control of game but it slipped away? \u201cWe had control over large parts of the game but not after the 2-1 anymore. That\u2019s also why they scored a 3-1 although it was from a set piece not open play. There was a part of the game where we defnitely struggled with their pace, quality, and intensity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defending has been the problem this season: \u201cWe\u2019ve conceded far too many goals but we also didn\u2019t score too many goals although two away at Villa Park is not too bad. But we conceded four and three out of four from set pieces and that\u2019s too much.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why did the players fail to cope with the intensity? \u201cYou\u2019re referring to the period we struggled after 2-1 but overall I don\u2019t think the players deserve what you\u2019re saying. They did cope to this difficult away game. They were fully in the game but I agree with you after the 2-1 we crumbled.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not for the first time. When we are the better team we struggle to find that goal mainly because we do not create big enough chances. And when we have a period of time where we are struggling or the other team is better than us, we tend to concede too easy, After this game I wouldn\u2019t be surprised\u201d<\/p>\n
Now you must feel real pressure to make the UCL: \u201cWe are under full pressure although it feels we have been under full pressure the whole season. The only thing we can do now is make a very good week and be very well prepared. As always we are hoping that our fans will be fully behind us because you could see tonight how important it is \u2014 as we\u2019ve seen at Anfield \u2014 what it means to be all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rio Ngumoha a bright spot? \u201cHe was a big threat off the left. That\u2019s so important for a team that has ball possession and trying to score. You need players like him to create something for you and he did that a few times today.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liverpool got a pair of goals from Virgil van Dijk but watched as Aston Villa scored four times…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645644,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-645643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645643"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645643\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}