Arne Slot blames his Liverpool tactics for Man City loss and not 'my players at all'

Arne Slot reacts to Liverpool's fifth defeat of the Premier League season as they are beaten 3-0 by Manchester City at the Etihad

Arne Slot was forced to concede his Liverpool team were beaten by a superior Manchester City as Pep Guardiola celebrated his 1,000th game in management with a 3-0 win. Slot, though, said the blame should be laid at his tactics and not his players as they now sign off for November's international break in eighth.

The champions succumbed to their fifth defeat in 11 Premier League games as goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku gave City the result their performance merited in Manchester.

Slot named an unchanged side from the XI that beat Real Madrid 1-0 at Anfield in the Champions League on Tuesday but after back-to-back victories that began with a 2-0 triumph over Aston Villa last Saturday, the trip to the Etihad was a step too far, with the Reds head coach accepting his team were second best on the day.

OPINION

OPINION

“It’s easy for players to win their duels if the game-plan and tactics are working," Slot said. "What I did against Villa and Madrid, we struggled now a lot with them bringing so many players into the centre of the pitch.

“It was difficult for some of our players then to make the right decisions. It wasn’t about my players not wanting to make duels, they had to run a lot because they were so much better on the ball than us. Our players were then sometimes too late.

“I would look to the game-plan first and foremost of us and them and not blame my players at all.

“In the second half when we were doing better you could see could us winning much more duels. Then we were more than a few times able to win the ball, which didn’t result in a goal for us.

“But in the second half we definitely deserved a goal.

“Of course, everyone is disappointed. It was a very good start to the week, winning against Villa and Real Madrid, but if you’ve already faced two strong opponents, and then you have Man City coming at the Etihad, that is always difficult for every team, including us.

“They were by far the better side in the first half."

Slot added: “They were in every aspect of football better in the first half. I saw a lot of similarities between last season and this season with one main difference in that after we struggled a lot in the first 25 minutes we scored a set-piece.

"And that changed the game, City kept on outplaying us but it did us to find some energy to keep defending well.

“Last season they didn’t create that many chances, today they created more but it wasn’t like they had chance after chance after chance, but this time they were much more effective with the chances they had.

“The first goal, I don’t think that’s a big chance but is quality, third goal is not a big chance but it’s quality, second goal is a set-piece."

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