ReactionPress conference: Arne Slot's assessment of Fulham 3-2 Liverpool

A turnaround from the hosts in the first half meant the Reds suffered a loss for just the second time in the Premier League this season.

Alexis Mac Allister's long-range strike gave Slot's men the lead inside the opening quarter of an hour but it was quickly equalised by Ryan Sessegnon.

Goals from Alex Iwobi and Rodrigo Muniz within a five-minute spell then handed the European-chasing Cottagers a 3-1 advantage at the interval.

Luis Diaz came off the bench to halve the deficit in the 72nd minute but Liverpool were unable to find the leveller and suffered a first top-flight defeat on their travels in 2024-25.

Read a summary of Slot's post-match press conference below…

On what went wrong with the first-half performance...

I think especially 15 minutes of the first half. I saw also parts before we conceded or before we conceded the second one [that were] normal parts for us. I saw some very good build-up situations, the way we positioned ourselves. So, it wasn't 45 minutes of disaster but the errors we made I think are something we are not used to, and that's something different than playing poorly, in my opinion.

On whether the errors 'disappointed him'...

Yes, of course, but not only me – the players themselves, the teammates, the fans. But one of the reasons why we are in the position we are in is we don't make a lot of mistakes and if we do players try to make up for them. Now, this is also what we tried to do with the second goal but, unfortunately, instead of the ball being deflected [and] going behind, it went into the goal.

This can happen, especially if you play a good team like Fulham. If you make mistakes, they have the quality to punish us. I think in the end [in the] second half we created so many chances that we could have made up for it. But we lacked time, especially in the end, because in the first 20 minutes of the second half it didn't feel to me as if we could score a goal. But in the last 20 to 25 minutes, I think it was clear for everyone that we could score the third. That's why actual playing time wasn't the most in the last 25 minutes.

• Read our match report from Craven Cottage

On whether the size of the lead at the top of the table has led to any complacency...

I think there is no reason for us to be complacent. We are not No.1 at the moment because we win every game with a margin of three or four goals. I think everyone that has seen our games [knows] it takes us so much effort, so much hard work to win games of football, combined with quality of course. The team that won the league in the last four seasons were already 3-0 up at half-time almost every single game they played.

That's not the way it is for us, so we are fully aware of the fact we have to compete for seven more games. We saw it on Wednesday when we played Everton, it was a close call. Today it was a close call and many times we've been on the right side. Today we were on the wrong side, mainly because of the errors we made.

On what he told the players after the game...

The message was I mainly told them they showed great character in the second half but not for the first time this season we had a difficult first half. It didn't happen a lot, but I can come up with Southampton at home, for example, where we played quite poorly. Normally we are able to make up for that because of the mentality of the team, how fit they are, the subs we can bring [on]. Today it wasn't enough and now we have a whole week to prepare for West Ham.

Everybody needs to be aware – and they are, so actually I didn't even need to tell them – that the only way we can win a game of football is by hard work, 90 minutes [of] constant effort. Because I've said it a few times now, we are not the team that are leading at half-time with 3-0 or 4-0 with three, four or five acts of brilliance. It is hard work every time we won a game of football this season, except for two or three games.