Arne Slot has revealed that Newcastle United were the first team that ‘deserved’ to beat his Liverpool side this season.
Newcastle United and Liverpool return to Premier League action this week after an international period and a weekend of FA Cup action prolonged their break following the Carabao Cup final. The Magpies host Brentford on Wednesday night (7:45pm kick-off) whilst league leaders Liverpool welcome local rivals Everton to Anfield in a match that kicks-off 15 minutes later.
Newcastle have already secured Conference League football following their win at Wembley and have ten matches to push for a return to the Champions League. The Reds, meanwhile, will be aiming to finish the season strongly and secure their second Premier League title.
Slot’s side have lost just one league game all season, coming at home to Nottingham Forest back in September, with only PSV Eindhoven, Plymouth Argyle and Newcastle United defeating them in normal time in any other competition this campaign.
Arne Slot’s classy Newcastle United comments
Speaking ahead of his side’s clash with the Toffees, Slot admitted that his side ‘deserved’ to lose last month’s Carabao Cup final with Newcastle United becoming the only team, in his mind at least, that have rightly come away from a match against the Reds this season with a win: “I think there was a bit of noise about us losing against Paris Saint-Germain and losing against Newcastle as well,” Slot told reporters. “I always try to be rational and try to judge the situation.
“I don’t think it’s happened many times that from the nine serious games a team plays in Europe, because I didn’t take the PSV [league stage] game serious because we were already qualified, when you win eight and only lose one that you’re out before the quarter-finals.
“I was a bit more frustrated about the final because I think we deserved to lose that one and that is for the first time I think we deserved to lose a football game. We were not tough in terms of defending, we were not good with the ball so there was not many things to like about the final.”
Arne Slot on Dan Burn goal
One of the major talking points after the final was Liverpool’s zonal marking from corners, one that allowed Dan Burn to power home the opening goal just before the half-time whistle. Asked to explain that goal in the immediate aftermath of the full-time whistle, Slot said: “We have five players zonally close to our goal and it the ball falls there, it is always one of the five players going to attack the ball and we have three players that man-mark and Macca is one of them.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn runs to the zone because normally, and I think he is an exception because I have never seen in my life, a player from that far away heading a ball with so much force into the far corner. That is part of logic that either they have to go far away from our zone which 99 out of a 100 times will never lead to a goal or they have to arrive in our zone and then it’s an equal level, if you call if like this.”
