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 deliver Cody Gakpo in for Luis Diaz, however he witnessed a laboured first half at Craven Cottage.
Although Liverpool took the lead by way of Alexis Mac Allister‘s thunderbolt, they went into the break 3-1 down after a sequence of pricey 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 pinnacle coach replied: “No, no, no.
“Not due to that cause, 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 all over the place the identical in soccer: for those who concede three objectives within the first half, everyone is like ‘wow, that was a catastrophe’.
“Now for those who look again on it, realizing that you just concede three, you’ll most likely see a number of good moments as properly, as a result of there have been additionally good moments from us in buildup.
“I feel on the half-hour I seemed and it was 1-1, I used to be like ‘OK, it’s not our greatest sport, however we have now management over the sport’.
“However then unexpectedly I blinked my eyes and we have been 3-1 down.”
In Slot’s eyes, then, Liverpool’s failure in west London was extra all the way down to freak errors than a collective tiredness, although there are wider issues over a variety of gamers.
It’s not typically 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.
Nevertheless Slot has insisted any query marks over Van Dijk is extra all the way 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 towards 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 at the moment (Muniz), it’s a must to give credit score to as properly.
“I nonetheless see lots, lot, lot of issues Virgil does rather well.
“And for those who play 50, 60 video games a season there will probably be, additionally even for him, one or two moments the place he might have executed higher.
“However typically, for those who have a look at Virgil’s efficiency towards Everton, aside from the one time he missed the ball, he was excellent. I don’t fear about him.”
