Arne Slot has dismissed questions on his lack of rotation after making just one change for Liverpool’s 3-2 loss at Fulham, insisting his gamers are used to it.
Slot’s solely alteration from the 1-0 victory over Everton on Wednesday was to carry Cody Gakpo in for Luis Diaz, however he witnessed a laboured first half at Craven Cottage.
Although Liverpool took the lead by Alexis Mac Allister‘s thunderbolt, they went into the break 3-1 down after a sequence of expensive errors allowed Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz to attain.
It was solely when Slot turned to his bench within the second half – most notably with the introduction of Luis Diaz, Harvey Elliott and Conor Bradley – that issues improved.
However requested in his post-match press convention whether or not he regretted not rotating his squad extra to freshen issues up, the top coach replied: “No, no, no.
“Not due to that motive, as a result of there have been 4 days in between and we’ve proven many occasions this season that that’s not an issue in any respect for us. These gamers as properly.
“I don’t assume the errors we’ve made have something to do with gamers being drained.
“And once more, I understand how it really works, it’s in every single place the identical in soccer: should you concede three targets within the first half, all people is like ‘wow, that was a catastrophe’.
“Now should you look again on it, figuring out that you just concede three, you’ll most likely see a couple of good moments as properly, as a result of there have been additionally good moments from us in buildup.
“I believe on the half-hour I seemed and it was 1-1, I used to be like ‘OK, it’s not our greatest recreation, however we have now management over the sport’.
“However then hastily I blinked my eyes and we had been 3-1 down.”
In Slot’s eyes, then, Liverpool’s failure in west London was extra right down to freak errors than a collective tiredness, although there are wider considerations over various gamers.
It isn’t usually that Virgil van Dijk finds himself in that group of these whose performances are scrutinised, however the captain has definitely struggled in current video games.
Nonetheless Slot has insisted any query marks over Van Dijk is extra right down to the standard and profile of strikers he has confronted this week.
“I primarily give credit score to different gamers as properly,” he defined.
“Virgil isn’t the primary defender who finds it tough to play in opposition to Beto, as a result of each time he’s chasing for each ball, pushes you simply earlier than you get the ball.
“The one who performed there right now (Muniz), it’s a must to give credit score to as properly.
“I nonetheless see rather a lot, lot, lot of issues Virgil does rather well.
“And should you play 50, 60 video games a season there shall be, additionally even for him, one or two moments the place he might have accomplished higher.
“However basically, should you take a look at Virgil’s efficiency in opposition to Everton, apart from the one time he missed the ball, he was excellent. I don’t fear about him.”
