Arne Slot reveals why Liverpool defeat not a ‘surprise’; explains referee complaint at full-time | OneFootball

Arne Slot explained why Liverpool’s dramatic 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth “shouldn’t come as a complete surprise” and revealed what he was complaining to officials about at full-time.

Amine Adli scored deep into stoppage time to claim all three points for the hosts after Liverpool fought back from two goals down at the Vitality Stadium.

Evanilson gave Bournemouth the lead as Alex Scott pounced on a Virgil van Dijk error to set up the Brazilian striker, before Alex Jimenez tore in behind Milos Kerkez seven minutes later to put them 2-0 up.

Van Dijk shouldered in Dominik Szoboszlai’s cross just before the break and Szoboszlai then scored from a free-kick to draw Slot’s side level in the 80th minute.

It was Bournemouth who then went up a gear to find a winner and did so with almost the last kick of the game as Adli made the most of some horrible Reds defending from a long throw to claim a crucial win for his side.

After the game, Slot claimed he wasn’t hugely surprised by the defeat given how much football his players have had to play of late.

He said: “Although we were 2-0 down at a certain point, but it’s a good comeback although it didn’t feel to me that we deserved to be 2-0 down at the moment we were, but the players reacted really well. We came back to 2-2 and then I thought it was a very open game where both teams had their chances.

“They probably [had] even more than us which shouldn’t come as a complete surprise to me knowing that we’ve played two days before in Marseille and for the last four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 games we’ve had to play with the same players for the players we had available and then sometimes a few of them could be at the end of the game a bit tired. I think that’s what you could see at the end today as well.”

Slot was seen taking to the officials after the game and said he was asking them how they only came up with four minutes of stoppage time.

He added: “I think first of all we have to look at ourselves. It was more open. Both teams were trying to score a goal. They had better opportunities than us in the last 10 minutes and then in the end there was a long throw-in and they scored a goal.

“For me, four minutes of added time was not enough but in the end that didn’t matter because they scored. Although then we could’ve maybe had two or three minutes but this game shouldn’t have had four minutes of extra time. There was already a free-kick that took two or three minutes, there was VAR moments, there was substitutions. That’s what I said to them, that four minutes wasn’t enough.

“We were down to 10 men and then they scored their second and that was the only few minutes bar from the last 10 minutes that we had some problems. But the result was another loss.”