A meek FA Cup exit. His heaviest defeat as Liverpool manager. A senior player saying there was no “fighting spirit.”
Arne Slot came under renewed pressure Saturday after a 4-0 thrashing by Manchester City featuring a 20-minute collapse that he could barely explain.
“An unbelievable disappointment,” the Dutchman said after Liverpool’s elimination in the FA Cup quarterfinals at Etihad Stadium.
After winning the Premier League last year in his first season in charge and then overseeing a $570 million summer splurge on new players, Slot has seen Liverpool fall away badly and lose 15 matches in all competitions. That’s their most in a single season since 2014-15.
The Reds are fifth in the league — 21 points behind first-place Arsenal — and now have just one shot left at a trophy, in the Champions League. Liverpool plays defending champion Paris Saint-Germain in the quarterfinals starting next week.
Slot’s predecessor, Jurgen Klopp, used to describe Liverpool’s players as “mentality monsters” but there was a lack of fight in the team, especially in the period from the 39th to the 57th minute when City scored all of its goals.
“The fighting spirit wasn’t there enough, the mentality wasn’t there enough. None of us were there to be honest as much as we could,” Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai said.
Asked why those attributes weren’t there, he added: “That’s a good question. I don’t know. It’s hard to find words, to be honest.”
Szoboszlai’s comments were then put to Slot.
“I should ask him what he means and what period of time,” Slot said. “If he felt it was the whole game, I did not feel this until the moment they scored (to make it) 1-0.
“In that 10, 15 minutes of time (at the start of the second half),” he added, “I missed the fighting spirit … the willingness to win your duel, to be there first, to make it difficult for either a pass or a cross or a finish. That is something we definitely have to do better on Wednesday (against PSG).”
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