Arne Slot Frustrated Liverpool Could Lose to Bottom Team in the Table
JAKARTA - Liverpool not only failed to score full points, they also suffered a 2-1 defeat against the bottom of the English Premier League standings, Wolverhampton Wanderers. A failure that made manager Arne Slot frustrated because Liverpool failed to enter the Champions League zone.
Liverpool failed to maintain their performance. After defeating Nottingham Forest 1-0 and then winning big 5-2 when hosting West Ham United, Liverpool instead lost when visiting Wolves' headquarters in a match at Molineux Stadium, Wednesday, March 4, 2026 WIB.
The disappointing result and Liverpool losing the opportunity to overtake Aston Villa and enter the Champions League zone were against the team that would be relegated. Yes, Wolves occupy the bottom of the standings because they only have 16 points.
However, recently Wolves' performance has been shiny. They held Arsenal 2-2 and then beat Villa 2-0. The victory had the effect of Villa losing its position in the top four by being displaced by Manchester United.
Even though they are in the red zone and next season is predicted to be relegated to the Championship Division, Wolves were able to give a tight fight against the Reds. Even Liverpool was unable to break Jose Sa's goal throughout the first half. Instead, the hosts conceded first through Rodrigo Gomes in the 78th minute.
Liverpool finally managed to equalize through Mohamed Salah. However, when the match was expected to end in a draw, Alisson Becker's goal was actually conceded in injury time. Andre's shot from outside the penalty area hit the leg of defender Joe Gomez, which made the ball slide quickly into the goal without being anticipated by Alisson.
The result made Liverpool suffer their first defeat in the last five matches in various competitions. However, what made Slot disappointed, Liverpool conceded when the match was only a few minutes. Of the nine league defeats, Liverpool only lost three times through goals in injury time.
"We were actually able to close the opportunity to concede. Not only that, we also created more opportunities than them. But the end result was a 2-1 loss," Slot said as quoted by france24.
"We have lost too often so we have lost a lot of points. And once again we conceded in extra time? This is the third time in 22 league games, we lost due to a goal in injury time," said the Dutchman who has spent 450 million pounds to buy players. Even though it cost a lot of money because it had bought players, including Hugo Ekitike who failed to show his sharpness in the match, Liverpool failed to retain the league title.
Slot criticized his team's poor performance. They were not only fragile in defense but also weak in finishing. According to him, the team's game in the second half was actually better than the previous one. Liverpool also almost added a goal through Virgil van Dijk's header. Only, they instead conceded when the match was about to end.
"Very bad result. In the first half, our game was not good at all. But it was better in the second half. We also almost added a goal. But we even conceded when they tried to enter our defense area," Slot said again.
"In the end we conceded a deflected shot. It was not an opportunity," he said.
The defeat in the match makes Liverpool still ranked fifth with 48 points. Their position can be taken by Chelsea if they beat the hosts Villa, Thursday, March 5, 2026 WIB.
Liverpool themselves will meet Wolves again at the same venue in the fifth round of the FA Cup, next Friday. The slot stated that this defeat was a valuable lesson when the team faced Rob Edwards' team again and had the opportunity to avenge the defeat.
"This is a good thing because we can prove it in the Friday match," Slot said.
Meanwhile, Van Dijk admitted that the team played poorly so that the players who should be blamed for the result. "We played slowly and predictably. Our ball control was very bad and always made the wrong decisions. It's really disappointing," said Van Dijk.