Arne Slot says he understands why his future is being questioned after Liverpool’s 4-1 home defeat to PSV Eindhoven, their ninth loss in 12 games.
Liverpool conceded early to an Ivan Perisic penalty before Dominik Szoboszlai levelled, but second-half goals from Guus Til and a Couhaib Driouech brace sealed another damaging defeat.
It followed back-to-back 3-0 losses to Manchester City and Nottingham Forest.
Arne Slot admitted he is shocked by the team’s slump.
“I don’t think it’s important if it’s fair or not,” he said when asked about his job security amid the recent run, having led Liverpool to the Premier League title only six months ago. “But that is normal. That I understand.
“If any manager around the world loses football games, let alone so many as we’ve lost, it’s quite normal that people have an opinion about that.
“And if that’s fair or not fair, that’s for the people to judge. But that is normal. I think it is that if you lose so many times, that people start talking about that.
“I think it’s a shock for everyone. For the players, for the journalists over here, for me. For everyone this is a shock that is very, very, very unexpected when you look at the quality we are having.
“Is it a lack of confidence? I didn’t see that in the first half. Of course, it is hard if you concede a goal straight into this game after losing 3-0.
“But the sort of mentality these players have shown on so many times since I’m here, came back in a way you would like to created chances. Kept them in their half.
“And after another setback after conceding 2-1, I also saw us creating chances again to score the 2-2.
“But at the end of the game, I did see that it maybe affected one or two players that we were three and 4-1 down, that’s true.”
The Dutchman, however, said he is not worried about his position, noting he has already held discussions with the club’s hierarchy.
“I don’t agree with you that the quality [of Liverpool’s players] isn’t showing itself,” he said. “I see enough moments that players show their quality but it doesn’t reflect in the score or in the results, that is clear.
“But no, I am not worried – what I mean with that is that my focus is on other things than worrying about my own position. I try to analyse [and] try to help the players as much as I can.
“And it is obvious that I don’t do it in the way that I did it last season because when you talk about individual errors, I think that is also something that comes from a team effort.
“So, again, I need to do better and that is what I am trying to do every single day, to improve the team, and that is where my main focus is, to be honest.
“Yeah (I talk to club bosses), but not in the sense that they tell me every single minute, ‘We support you, we support you, we support you’, but we talk a lot if we are winning, like last season, and if we are losing.
“Then they are helpful to me, to the team, so yes we do have those conversations but they don’t call me every single minute of the day to tell me that they still trust me.
“But we do have the normal conversations and in those conversations I feel the trust, but I haven’t spoken to them after this game yet, so let’s see.”
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