Loss record
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Liverpool coach Arne Slot went into Wednesday’s EFL Cup game against Crystal Palace with ten changes and a new system. In the end there was the sixth defeat in the last seven games – like the previous Saturday at Brentford (2:3) with three goals conceded. After the 0:3 (0:2) in the cup against the South London team led by coach Oliver Glasner, Slot justified his line-up, but also seemed at a loss.
Slot celebrated the championship title with the Reds in the summer, but so far had the LFC’s weakest Premier League start after nine matchdays since 2016/17. At that time, predecessor Jürgen Klopp had 13 points in his third Liverpool season and was ninth in the table. Slot is seventh with the current team with 15 points. In the last six weeks alone, they suffered six defeats against their team across all competitions, starting with a 1-2 defeat in the league on September 27th. The opponent there was also called Crystal Palace.
It is currently difficult to assess whether Slot’s coaching chair is now seriously wobbling. Assumptions about this have so far hardly gone beyond reports in the tabloid media. The British daily newspaper “The Sun”, for example, speculated that the Dutch coach would be fired after the defeat against Palace.
Slot about flood of defeats: “There are many reasons” – negative record broken
After another defeat, Slot justified his changes, calling them “right decisions”. In addition to record purchaser Florian Wirtz, those missing from the starting line-up included top star Mohamed Salah and ex-Frankfurt player Hugo Ekitiké – the club’s top goalscorer so far this season – as well as Cody Gakpo and defense chief Virgil van Dijk. The young professionals Kieran Morrison, Trey Nyoni, Calvin Ramsay and Rio Ngumoha were on the pitch.
Many professionals were not available to Slot, he explained and also emphasized: “I would also like to point out that this club has always used this competition to use the players from the academy.” Meanwhile, the appearance of defensive talent Amara Nallo, who was allowed to play for the Liverpool professionals for the second time and was sent off for the second time after a few minutes with a red card, was curious.
Slot stated: “There are many reasons why we lost six out of seven games. But none of them are good enough.” Since the end of September, Liverpool have only not lost against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League, ironically even securing a comfortable 5-1 win there. “I can give the arguments, but they won’t be enough,” concluded Slot. “As Liverpool FC, six defeats from seven games are always too many.”
The Reds’ current four consecutive defeats in the league are a club record. Liverpool have never lost consecutively in the Premier League (among the longest streaks in Premier League history per club).