Defender urges Liverpool to ‘get back to’ previous levels He feels Van Dijk’s disallowed goal should have stood Andrew Robertson admits Liverpool have a “huge uphill battle” to defend the title after Sunday’s 3-0 defeat at Manchester City, which leaves Arne Slot’s team eighth. The reverse was a fifth in six league matches, with Liverpool eight points behind the leaders, Arsenal, after 11 matches. Robertson said: “Obviously, we’ve given ourselves a huge uphill battle, but I don’t think any of the teams will really look at the league table until we’re halfway through. That’s what we’ve got to do but we’ve got to pick up points on a more consistent basis. Then let’s see where we are after Christmas time or whatever. We’ve just got to focus on ourselves and focus on performance levels. Continue reading...

Guardiola brings up 1,000 games as a manager Arne Slot unhappy with Van Dijk’s disallowed goal Pep Guardiola praised Jérémy Doku and thanked Manchester City for giving him the “incredible present” of a 3-0 victory against Liverpool, in his 1,000th match as a manager. First-half goals from Erling Haaland and Nico González and an outstanding 20-yard individual Doku effort after the break took City to within four points of the Premier League leaders Arsenal. Continue reading...

Arne Slot: ‘Florian needs time to adapt to teammates’ Head coach hopes to have Isak available for City clash Arne Slot has rejected Arsène Wenger’s theory that playing Florian Wirtz as a No 10 has “destroyed Liverpool’s midfield” and insisted the £116m signing will prove a special talent wherever he operates for the Premier League champions. Wirtz impressed when playing off the left in the Champions League defeat of Real Madrid on Tuesday, having previously struggled to make an impact in a central attacking role. The Germany international’s difficult start in the Premier League – where he is yet to score or assist before Sunday’s visit to Manchester City – prompted a withering assessment by Wenger before the visit of Real. Continue reading...

Arne Slot now finds himself tasked with turning his team’s victory over Real Madrid into a solid platform for recovery Arne Slot called for a repeat of Liverpool’s performance against Real Madrid when the Premier League champions visit Manchester City and will no doubt repeat himself in the coming days. For Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday, read Erling Haaland on Sunday. Nullifying another of the game’s finest strikers, while keeping a third clean sheet in a row, would reinforce Slot’s post-Madrid message that Liverpool remain in the chase for the biggest prizes. They do not include the Carabao Cup. The Champions League victory over Xabi Alonso’s La Liga leaders, who had 13 wins from 14 games before their arrival at Anfield, was the perfect remedy for a Liverpool team looking to heal the wounds of the worst run of Slot’s reign. It was also perfect preparation for what awaits at the Etihad Stadium: an opponent that wants to play out, that will not sit in a low block and carries an obvious, rampant threat. Continue reading...

Arne Slot says Trent Alexander-Arnold has been very special to him as a player and person after Liverpool fans booed him on his first return to Anfield since moving to Real Madrid.

Ultimately it was not about who was back at Anfield but what was back. The Liverpool of Arne Slot’s title-winning debut season was the answer and, for the second November in succession, Real Madrid did not have one of their own. Alexis Mac Allister opened the scoring in last season’s 2-0 defeat of the Spanish giants – though giant is not an accurate description of their latest performance on Merseyside – and settled the reunion of the European heavyweights as Liverpool, all controlled aggression and clear intent, ignited their Champions League campaign and quite possibly their season. Another clean sheet and set-piece goal added to Slot’s satisfaction on a raucous, reaffirming night at Anfield. Xabi Alonso’s team were a distant second all night. Trent Alexander-Arnold, his mural near Anfield vandalised earlier in the day, entered in the 81st minute to a chorus of boos. Continue reading...

Liverpool manager says playmaker will justify £116m fee Xabi Alonso backs ‘really special player’ to come good Arne Slot has defended Florian Wirtz before Real Madrid’s visit in the Champions League and insisted the £116m signing has produced “exactly what we expected” at this stage of his Liverpool career. The playmaker was on the bench for the win against Aston Villa on Saturday and also omitted from Slot’s starting lineup against Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton having struggled to make an impact in the Premier League. Wirtz has started all three of Liverpool’s Champions League games, however, and could well return for the visit of Xabi Alonso’s side on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Arne Slot says he is unsure what kind of reception Trent Alexander-Arnold will receive from fans when he returns to Liverpool in the Champions League with Real Madrid on Tuesday.

‘It’s huge. You don’t see that much in football any more’ Salah scored opening goal in 2-0 victory at Anfield Arne Slot hailed the “unbelievable” Mohamed Salah after the Liverpool striker scored his 250th goal for the club as the Premier League champions eased the pressure on their head coach with a 2-0 victory against Aston Villa. Salah opened the scoring in a deserved defeat of Unai Emery’s in-form team after a calamitous error by the World Cup-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. Ryan Gravenberch added a second to end a run of four successive league defeats for Liverpool and lift Slot’s side to third in the table. Salah’s strike capped a vastly improved performance from the Egypt international. Continue reading...

Liverpool boss Arne Slot says his side showed great character as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 to end their Premier League losing run.

As the pressure lifted inside Anfield and Liverpool entered stoppage time of their first Premier League win since 20 September, the Kop broke into a rousing chorus of Arne Slot’s name. But it’s easy to stand by your man when victory is in sight. A more significant rendition came at nil-nil, when the pressure was still firmly on and Dominik Szoboszlai had just squandered a glorious chance to punish the kind of lackadaisical defending that would ultimately prove Aston Villa’s downfall. Support for Slot was unequivocal when it mattered most. Liverpool, the Premier League’s crisis club before kick-off after six defeats in seven games, sit third in the table after starting an important week with a deserved win against Villa. A first clean sheet in 11 games reflected a more controlled performance from the Premier League champions and, as Slot admitted, a change in fortune. Unai Emery’s team struck the woodwork twice when the game was delicately poised but would prove the perfect guests for a team and head coach in need of recovery. Continue reading...

⚽️ Premier League updates from this 8pm GMT kick-off ⚽️ Live scores | Premier League table | Follow us on Bluesky Arne Slot makes three changes from last Saturday’s defeat at Brentford. Andy Robertson replaces the struggling Milos Kerkez at left-back; Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister come in for Curtis Jones and Florian Wirtz. Just one changed to the Villa side that beat Manchester City: Evann Guessand comes in for the injured Emi Buendia. Continue reading...

⚽ News, previews and discussion before the day’s action ⚽ Premier League: 10 things to look for | Mail matchday live Liverpool v Aston Villa: It’s a massive week for Arne Slot’s defending champions – after today’s game they face Real Madrid in the Champions League before a visit to Manchester City next weekend. Speaking yesterday, Slot identified Liverpool’s difficulties in converting chances as being more concerning than their leaky defence. They’ve lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and tonight face a Villa side who have won their last four league games. Against United, how many chances did we concede? Against Frankfurt when we were 3-1 up, we hardly conceded a shot on target. In all the games we played until now we haven’t conceded a lot of chances. Not at all. We do give away a bit more than last season but that has to do with us being 1-0 down so you take a bit more risk. But in general I don’t think that our issue is that we concede too many chances. Our issue is we don’t score the chances we create. I had lunch with him, there were a couple of water bottles on the table and he was shuffling them, saying: ‘He moves in here and he moves right. He should go, he should commit, he should come out.’ And he was talking about connections on the pitch. I arrived quite tired after a long day but I was buzzing. Watching the coaching, he was on Kevin De Bruyne, sharp as a knife. It gave me energy. Continue reading...

Feyenoord coach on how a chat with his daughter changed his life, memories of Arsenal and Manchester United and a lunch with Guardiola Robin van Persie was warming to his theme, imparting wisdom to his children, Shaqueel and Dina, then 14 and 10. “We were at the kitchen table in our new house and I was giving them a speech: ‘You have to find your passion as soon as possible!’” He is, however, self-aware enough to realise how parental monologues are received. “I was ‘passion this, passion that’. It went on and on and on.” It was Dina who brought him up short. “Yeah, Dad, but what is your passion now?” Continue reading...