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Liverpool coach Arne Slot says pressure growing after losing run
Arne Slot believes the pressure is growing after Liverpool’s alarming losing run, he said on Thursday.
The defending Premier League champion has lost nine of its last 12 games in all competitions. The 4-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday was a third in succession when Liverpool has lost by three goals or more.
While Slot said after the match that he felt safe in his position, he also accepts the run brings extra heat.
“There’s a lot of pressure if you work or play at a top club and even more so if you start losing more games than this club, or these players or this manager, is used to. So then there’s always pressure,” said the Liverpool coach.
“But there was a lot of pressure last season as well for us to win the league and now it’s a different kind of pressure because we’ve lost so many games.”
Liverpool’s title defense is unravelling after six losses in its last seven league games.
It is 12th in the standings, 11 points behind first-place Arsenal.
Slot was near faultless in his first season at Anfield, leading the club to a record-equaling 20th league crown by a 10-point margin over runner-up Arsenal. Stepping into one of the most daunting jobs in soccer, he made light of succeeding Liverpool great Jurgen Klopp and was widely expected to retain the title.
But his team has looked a shadow of the one that was crowned champion in May, despite spending around $500 million (377 million pounds) in the offseason on star players like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool travels to West Ham on Sunday in danger of being cut further adrift in the title race.
“We fight on and we try to improve. That’s what we all try,” Slot said. “In the end it’s about doing what this club is about, keep fighting and no matter how difficult it is, we have to fight together.”
The goalkeeper Alisson is back in training for Liverpool after missing the PSV game due to illness and Wirtz could train ahead of the West Ham game after a muscle issue.
Slot said the back problem that forced Hugo Ekitike off against PSV was not expected to be a “big issue.”
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James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
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