Arne Slot brutally branded Manchester United a "long-ball team" as he claimed Liverpool "hardly conceded a chance" in their disappointing 2-1 loss at Anfield on Sunday. United registered their first victory at Anfield since 2016 and secured back-to-back wins in the Premier League for the first time since Ruben Amorim took over as head coach in November last year.
Liverpool stuck in a rut
Reigning champions Liverpool kicked off the season on a bright note as they won seven games in succession, including five in the Premier League. However, things went south towards the end of September when they suffered a 2-1 loss against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. More heartbreak followed in Turkey as they went down 1-0 against Galatasaray in the Champions League. Slot's men were then beaten 2-1 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and failed to bounce back against United, slumping to a fourth consecutive defeat in all competitions for the first time since 2014.
Bryan Mbeumo handed the visitors a surprise early lead, which was later cancelled out by Cody Gakpo's equaliser in the 78th minute. Just when the Reds appeared to have gained the upper hand, Harry Maguire came out of nowhere and scored the winning goal with a clinical header in the 84th minute. The win helped United climb up to ninth in the table, while Liverpool dropped to fourth, four points behind leaders Arsenal.
AdvertisementAFPSlot aims dig at Man Utd tactics
Slot was understandably disappointed with the result, but felt that Liverpool did well to create several goal-scoring opportunities against a United team that often went route one.
Reflecting on the match, Slot told : "It is always difficult to play against a team that defends in a low block and mainly plays the long ball. 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."
Concerns over set-piece vulnerability growing
Slot also expressed his concern over Liverpool conceding from set pieces as he issued a warning to his players. The Dutchman added: "Yes. Of course, we concede maybe one or two extra chances apart from the goals we conceded but you always have to take extra risk when you are 1-0 down. Taking that into account, we hardly conceded a chance and we are waiting for us to score a goal, we have to defend the set piece. Like against Palace and a few other moments this season, we've conceded on a set piece and that is hard to take because it is very difficult to win a game of football if you have a negative balance on set pieces."
Getty Images SportReferee hit with 'corruption' allegations
Mbeumo put United ahead inside two minutes with a composed finish after running in behind the Liverpool defence and firing into the back of the net. As he wheeled away in celebration, Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister was sprawled out on the turf. The World Cup-winning Argentina international was holding his head, having been caught in a challenge just inside the Liverpool half. He was struck by a stray elbow from Van Dijk, which clearly left him in some discomfort and forced him to play the remainder of the game with a headguard. The game, however, was not halted, with Oliver allowing play to go on and the Red Devils to take the lead. Liverpool fans were frustrated with the referee's call as some of them even made 'corruption' allegations against the match official.
However, former referee Keith Hackett has backed Oliver for making the correct decision, as he told : "Three players challenged in a fair manner for the ball which bounced and put Man United on the attack. They went in to score a good goal. It appeared that Oliver had not seen the head injury and play was allowed to continue. Goal scored and correctly allowed. VAR cannot intervene on this, it is not a clear and obvious error."