Liverpool not complacent despite shock loss – Slot

Arne Slot has insisted Liverpool were not complacent in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat to Fulham but warned they must produce “constant effort” in their final seven games to win the Premier League title.

Liverpool fell to only their second league defeat of the campaign at Craven Cottage despite Alexis Mac Allister giving the visitors a 13th-minute lead with a fine long-range strike.

Ryan Sessegnon, Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz all scored in the space of 14 stunning first-half minutes as Liverpool’s defence collapsed before substitute Luis Díaz triggered a late fightback 18 minutes from time.

Liverpool remain 11 points clear at the top of table and require 11 more from their final seven games to secure a record-equalling 20th top-flight title.

Amid external talk of Liverpool surpassing Manchester City’s record winning margin of 19 points in 2017-18, Slot suggested his team had not been as dominant as Pep Guardiola’s side of recent years and could therefore not think too far ahead.

“There is no reason for us to be complacent because we are not number one at the moment because we win every game by a margin of three or four goals,” he said. “Everyone that has seen our games, it takes so much effort, so much hard work to win games of football combined with quality of cause.

“The team that won the league the last four seasons were already 3-0 up at half-time in almost every single they played. That is not the way it is for us. We are fully aware that we have to compete for seven more games.

“The message [to the players] was mainly that I told them they showed great character in the second half but not for the first time this season, we had a difficult first half. It didn’t happen too often but normally we are able to make up for that because of the mentality of the team, how fit they are and the subs we can bring on.

“Today it wasn’t enough and now we have a whole week to prepare for West Ham. Everyone need to be aware and they are. Actually, I didn’t need to tell them. The only way we can win a game of football is hard work, 90 minutes, constant effort.”