Arne Slot: Liverpool need a little adjustment defensively for Bournemouth clash

By Rachel Steinberg, PA

Arne Slot demanded Liverpool tighten up defensively before Friday’s Premier League curtain-raiser after allowing Crystal Palace to come back and win the Community Shield in a penalty shootout at Wembley.

Hugo Ekitike – one of four summer signings in Slot’s starting XI – scored in the fourth minute of his competitive Reds debut, assisted by fellow new addition Florian Wirtz, an opener subsequently cancelled out by Jean-Philippe Mateta’s 17th minute penalty.

Jeremie Frimpong opened his own Liverpool account to restore their lead shortly afterwards, but Ismaila Sarr’s 77th-minute equaliser ultimately forced penalties, decided by Northern Ireland international Justin Devenny as Palace came out on top 3-2 in the shootout.

“I think in the whole pre-season we saw that we are able to create more and we are more comfortable on the ball, we create more opportunities, chances, we dominate maybe even more,” said Slot.

“Last season we had a lot of ball possession but that didn’t always lead to promising situations. Now, we are better in creating and getting promising situations than we were, in my opinion, throughout the whole of last season.

“But the other side is also true, that we have conceded four against Milan, one against the Japanese team (Yokohama F. Marinos), two against (Athletic) Bilbao and again two today.

“What made us really strong last season was we only won mostly by a margin of one goal and that had mostly to do with us keeping a clean sheet or as a maximum conceding one goal.”

Liverpool kick off their Premier League title defence on Friday night, hosting Bournemouth at Anfield, where Slot hopes to see swift improvement.

He added: “In general there were not many chances because they went to a low block (and) we had a lot of ball possession. But after the 2-2 they had (chances), so it needs maybe a little bit of adjustment defensively at the moment because we don’t concede a lot of chances but we do concede goals at the moment.”

And while Slot was pleased for his newcomers, the Dutch boss expects they would have happily traded their goals for a better result.

He said: “I think it’s always nice to score a goal. Not only for (Ekitike), also for Jeremie Frimpong – if you are starting your career at a new club. But it would have been even nicer to win a game of football because I think that’s more important than scoring a goal.”

Ekitike, who joined Liverpool from Eintracht Frankfurt last month, was substituted in the 71st minute at Wembley and replaced by Alexis Mac Allister, one of two Reds – alongside Harvey Elliott – denied by Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson in the shootout following Mohamed Salah’s opening miss.

Slot added: “(Ekitike) had a good impact but he is also an example of a player who came, I think, one-and-a-half to two weeks ago, at the end of our Asian tour. So for me, with only three or four days before the Friday game, it wouldn’t be smart to play him for 90 minutes.

“There’s not a lot to replace him with. So, if he gets an injury at this moment of time, that would be a big risk for the Bournemouth, Newcastle and Arsenal games. That’s why I took him off but he had a good game today, that’s for sure.”