Liverpool manager Arne Slot admitted that talk of a Premier League title challenge was premature given their current form as he candidly analysed his side’s humbling 3-0 away defeat to rivals Manchester City on Sunday.
The trouncing marked the reigning champions’ fifth league loss of the season – one more than all of the last campaign – and sent Slot’s men sliding down the table to eighth place after 11 games, eight points adrift of leaders Arsenal and four behind City.
“It feels there’s too many (losses),” Slot told reporters. “And the last thing I should speak about now is the title race. We should first focus on getting results – result after result after result – before we can even think about that. The reality is that we are eighth.
“I said last season, many times, the best way to judge the league table is, of course, after 38 (games), but the next best thing to judge it is after 19 games (the season’s halfway point), because then you all faced the same opponents.
“And the last thing we should focus on is on the title race. We need to improve. And that’s obvious.”
Liverpool had arrived at the Etihad on a high after recent victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid that had halted an ugly streak of six losses in seven games across all competitions.
The Dutchman was frank in his assessment of the match, conceding that City were dominant, particularly in the first half.
“Everyone is disappointed,” he said. “It was a very good start of the week, winning at Villa, winning against Real Madrid. But if you thought you already faced two strong opponents, then Man City comes across you, also at the Etihad which is for every team difficult, including us.
“And they were by far the much better side in the first half.”
Slot also voiced frustration over a disallowed goal by Virgil van Dijk, suggesting inconsistency in officiating. Liverpool defender Andy Robertson, who ducked as the ball was going in the net, was deemed to have interfered with play from an offside position and it was disallowed.
“For me that is a goal,” Slot said. “Immediately after the game, people showed me the goal City made away at Wolves last season. For me, that is a similar one. I was surprised because the first thing you do when you score is look at the linesman – it took 14 seconds before he raised his flag.”
City defeated Wolves 2-1 last season after John Stones scored a controversial 95th-minute winner, when he headed home Phil Foden’s corner. The goal was originally ruled out for offside because Bernardo Silva stood in front of Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa as the ball went into the net, but it was overturned following a VAR review.
Still, Slot was not using the disallowed goal as an excuse for the loss.
“These things didn’t help us,” Slot said. “But again City being 2-0 up at half-time was a fair reflection for the score.”
