The Liverpool FC boss had some choice words after his side were beaten by Man Utd last weekend.
Arne Slot insisted he did not mean to criticise Manchester United when he stated they relied heavily on long balls to defeat Liverpool last weekend. Bryan Mbeumo saw his early opener cancelled out by Cody Gakpo before Harry Maguire headed in a famous winner to give United their first victory at Anfield in almost a decade.
Slot drew plenty of criticism for his post-match analysis of the game, when he questioned the decision from Ruben Amorim to drop Benjamin Sesko and drew attention to United’s direct style of play. It appears he has finally changed his mind, though and insisted he did not mean any offence with his comments.
The Liverpool boss explained the logic behind his claim and also went on to praise summer signings Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha as two of the reasons why United managed to produce a tactical masterclass.
What Slot said about United
Speaking at the weekend, Arne Slot praised his Liverpool side and felt they did well to create as many chances as they did against a United side that played so direct.
“It is always difficult to play against a team that defends in a low block and mainly plays the long ball,” the Dutchman told Match of the Day. “ It makes it even more difficult when you go one down after one minute when one of our players are on the floor. If you would have told me before the game that against the low block, against so many long balls, that we would have created as many chances as we did I would have not expected us to lose. But that is what we did. We had enough chances to score more than one goal, but on the other hand again conceding two and one of the two was the set piece.”
Slot defends United complaint
Speaking to TNT Sports ahead of Liverpool’s emphatic victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, manager Arne Slot was quizzed on his Manchester United comments.
“We faced a team that had their game plan very well in order,” he said. “There was a bit of a debate over what I said after the game, but it was meant to be a compliment… so, they had a low block and played a lot of long balls. I was asked why it was difficult, and that was the reason.”
Slot added: “It wasn’t criticism, it was me trying to explain why the game was made difficult. If you win the ball back after they’ve played it long, there are 11 players behind the ball. I would add that, to a certain extent, I was positive that we created as many chances as we did.
“Against [Crystal] Palace, we were able to create a lot against a low block, the same against United, but not many games since I’ve been in charge have we been able to create many chances against a 5-4-1 low block. It wasn’t meant as a criticism at all. It was a very smart game plan and certainly their last three signings – two of them for sure – had an impact on the game, in [Matheus] Cunha and [Bryan] Mbeumo.”
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