Slot: Liverpool ‘can only blame’ themselves for first defeat

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes the players can only blame themselves after they suffered their first loss of the season against Crystal Palace. The Reds suffered a 2-1 loss at Selhurst Park on Saturday.

Substitute Eddie Nketiah scored the match-winning goal in the injury time (97th minute) after both teams were looking all set to play out a draw.

The home team had dominated the first half with Ismaila Sarr scoring an early goal but Federico Chiesa equalized for Slot’s team.

“We can only blame ourselves for defending the way we did,” Slot said in his postmatch news conference on Saturday.

“One of our players ran out because he wanted to play a counter-attack, which was of no use because time was up, so it was only about defending.

“One player was too offensively minded in that moment, which led to them scoring the winner and us losing the game.”

Slot gave credit to the opposition for coming up with a better performance than them and added that Oliver Glasner’s team deserved to win.

“Disappointing first half and disappointing end to the game. Once again, credit to Palace. It’s not the first time we have lost against them,” he said.

“We have played them four times and we’ve won one, drawn one and lost two. It tells you how difficult it is to beat them. They deserved to be up two or three goals in the first half.

“They created four really good chances, but the second half was much better for us and we created chances and not many teams do. It took a while for us to score. To concede another set-piece goal is disappointing.

The Dutchman added: “We were able to create a lot against a Palace team which hardly ever concedes chances. When you look at the first half they totally deserved to win. Second half we were better. If one team deserved to win today it was Palace.”

Liverpool will next take on Galatasaray in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday at the Rams Park.