Arne Slot admits Liverpool must be ‘close to perfection’ to avoid unacceptable season | OneFootball

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has said his side will have to be “close to perfection” from here in order to avoid slipping to an unacceptable season.

Liverpool led Manchester City with six minutes to go at Anfield on Sunday, in what looked set to be a huge boost for their top-four prospects, but conceded two late goals and saw Dominik Szoboszlai sent off as they slipped to a damaging 2-1 defeat.

It means they’re now sixth in the Premier League, level on points with Brentford below them, four points behind Chelsea in fifth and another point back from a suddenly resurgent Manchester United under Michael Carrick in the race for Champions League qualification – with England set to have either four or five spots depending how the rest of the season’s European games pan out.

And in his Tuesday morning press conference, ahead of Wednesday’s trip to face surprise package Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, Slot made no bones about what the minimum expectation is at Anfield this season.

“Yes, if we don’t have Champions League football, it is definitely not an acceptable season,” said the Dutchman.

“The season I arrived here, we could only sign Federico Chiesa and that summer and that was after a Europa League season. The way this club is run, it does have a huge impact.”

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Liverpool squandered a late lead against Man City in a 2-1 loss (Liverpool FC via Getty Images)

Slot is also aware that inconsistent results have left his side with littler margin for error in the top-four or top-five race and can ill-afford to keep seeing winning positions slip away.

“[We have to be] close to perfection because of the points we are behind,” Slot added. “We also know it is different when you are four points behind a team that are 18th or 19th in the league because they usually don’t pick up as many points as the number three, four or five picks up.

“To close the gap to numbers three, four and five, that means you have to win a lot and that is not what we have done this season a lot, so that is why that has to be better and that is why we have to be close to perfection.

“Margins are indeed very small because seven minutes before the end [of Sunday’s game at Anfield] we were five points behind Man City and five minutes later we were 11 points behind.”

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Arne Slot watched victory slip away from Liverpool (Getty Images)

Every time Liverpool get any momentum this season, they seem to immediately falter – with defeats to Bournemouth and Man City, plus a draw with doomed Burnley, scuppering them at points in recent weeks.

And after the glory of lifting the Premier League title in his first season at Anfield last year, Slot has viscerally felt the struggles this time around, although he’s hopeful things are heading in the right direction.

“It’s fair to say it’s the toughest season for me as a manager by a mile,” explained Slot. “I don’t think I’d ever previously lost two games in a row! It’s an exception for me and the players, they aren’t used to losing and drawing so much.

“This season has been more challenging for me. But I also look at how much improvement we are making. The main thing as manager is results, but the next thing is seeing players can improve and I’m seeing that.

“Our performances are much better now than at the start of the season where we started playing a double programme. Since we went into that we started to drop a lot of points.”