Slot on Liverpool unravelling in heavy Man City defeat

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Slot on Liverpool unravelling in heavy Man City defeat  09/11/2025  Etihad Stadium, Manchester, UK

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00:00Ous?

00:10They were in every aspect of football better the first half.

00:15I would say like last season.

00:18I saw a lot of similarities between last season and this season.

00:21We have one main difference in that after we struggled last season

00:26in the first 25 minutes a lot we scored a set piece.

00:29That changed the game.

00:31They kept on outplaying us for 90 minutes,

00:35but it did help us to get some energy to keep defending well.

00:38Last season they didn't create that many chances.

00:41I think today they created more,

00:43but it wasn't that they had chance after chance after chance.

00:46But this time they were much more effective with the chances they had.

00:52So first goal, I don't think that's a big chance.

00:55I think that's also quality.

00:57Third goal, it's not a big chance.

00:59But it's quality.

01:00Second goal set piece.

01:02What do you think?

01:03Of course, everyone is disappointed.

01:12It was a very good start of the week.

01:14Winning Villa, winning Real Madrid.

01:16But if you thought you already faced two strong opponents then Man City comes across you.

01:21away also at the Etihad.

01:24That is for every team difficult, including us.

01:27And they were by far the watch better side in the first half.

01:33I would like to emphasise on the fact that being 2-0 down at half-time was a fair reflection of how the game went.

01:50But I've been on the opposite side, that my team was much better than the other team.

02:09We were 1-0 up and then maybe not scoring the second one.

02:12And then the other team gets the set pieces 1-1 and then all of a sudden things change.

02:18So this can happen in football.

02:20It's not to say for me that it was clear and obvious for me that it was a wrong decision that this goal was not allowed.

02:27But that doesn't... I will not say that because of that we've lost the game.

02:34Because after 1-1 if City just kept on playing like they did then we would have struggled in the second half as well.

02:40But I constantly felt that if we are managing to keep maybe 1-0 down till half-time we can maybe adjust a few things.

02:49Which was definitely necessary because we were constantly coming one or two players short in the midfield.

02:55Because Doku and O'Reilly gave us a lot of problems with the two of them.

03:01So then 1-1 would have been the biggest gift we could get at half-time.

03:07Because in my opinion the second half was a different game.

03:12But being 2-0 down and later 3-0 down that maybe doesn't give a good reflection of how things would have went if it would have been 1-1.

03:22Yeah, yeah that's true. But it's also easy for players to win their duels if the game plan, if the tactics are working.

03:45And I think that's what it did against Villa and what it did against Madrid.

03:49But we struggled now a lot with them bringing so many players into the centre of the pitch.

03:57And it was difficult for some of our players then to make the right decision.

04:02So I think it wasn't about my players not wanting to make the duel.

04:08They had to run a lot because they were so much better on the ball than us.

04:12They were a few times then too late.

04:14So I would first and foremost always look to the game plan of us and them.

04:20And not blame my players at all because in the second half when we were doing better.

04:27I think you could also see that they were able to win much more duels.

04:30And then we were more than a few times able to win the ball.

04:34Which did not result in a goal from us.

04:37But yeah, in that period of time I think in the second half we definitely deserved the goal.

04:42Yeah, it feels there's too many.

05:02And the last thing I should speak about now is the title race.

05:06We should first focus on getting results, result after result after result.

05:11Before we can even think about that.

05:14And the reality is that we are seventh now.

05:16If I'm correct, seventh or eighth, something like this.

05:19One team is quite far ahead, although City is maybe four points I think.

05:25Yeah, away from Arsenal.

05:26The rest is quite close.

05:27And I've said last season many times even after when we were leading in the beginning.

05:33And the best way to judge the league table is of course after 38.

05:37But the next best thing to judge is after 19 games.

05:40Because then you all faced the same opponents.

05:43And yeah, our first focus should be on getting results in.

05:50And the last thing we should focus on is on the title race.

05:53Which is something we could do last season.

05:57But also not the previous two seasons before.

06:01But we need to improve and that's obvious.

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