Liverpool manager Arne Slot has shed light on the reasons behind the Reds’ 4-2 loss to AC Milan in their recent preseason clash, citing a lack of experience and positional reshuffling as key factors.
In an interview published on the club’s official website, the Dutch coach admitted that fielding numerous players outside their natural positions contributed to the team’s vulnerability during the match.
“I saw a few good things but I think we also have to improve in certain areas,” Slot said. “We got counter-attacked too much today, but that probably also has to do with the fact that we missed out on seven senior players and we wanted to give 20 players playing time.
“As a result of that, too many players didn’t play in their own position. But we still were able to play our normal game, but we were a bit too open once in a while on the counter-attack.”
Slot also addressed the absence of winger Luis Diaz from the squad, revealing that the decision was influenced by growing transfer speculation linking the Colombian to Bayern Munich.
“In Lucho’s situation it was, yeah. There’s a lot of rumours around him lately and I cannot go into that. He’s training really well with us but we have decided for now not to play him yet,” Slot explained.
He also touched on Darwin Nunez’s exclusion, saying, “In Darwin’s situation he has trained also really well and played a few good games for us already this season. But he was injured so we didn’t take the risk.
“Like I said, Lucho is training really well and we’ve decided that he’s not playing at the moment in the games. I cannot comment much more about that.”
The Reds will hope to bounce back in their next fixture as they continue to fine-tune preparations ahead of the new season.
