Arne Slot press conference: Every word on Brentford 3

Read everything head coach Slot told the media afterwards below.

On his emotions after the game...

Like you said, disappointing, again. You are always hoping if you win a game of football during the week, although it is only two days' rest when you come over here, of course you are hoping for a better result, but I was also hoping and expecting a better performance, because the performance was far from what we are used to. Even if we are losing, our performances have been better than tonight.

On 'what he would identify most that he was disappointed with'...

Doing the basics right. Although if you are 1-0 down, 2-0 down, 3-1 down with the energy in the stadium, that is definitely helpful for them, and they are a very good team in winning duels and winning second balls, so you have to give them credit for that as well, but of course it is hard to win a game of football if the other team wins more duels, more second balls than you - especially if that is also something they are playing off. Again, like I've said many times, it's also difficult to win a game of football if the set-piece balance is in their favour.

On Brentford's opening goal coming from a long throw-in...

It's the only thing we did yesterday on the training pitch, preparing for that, and the meeting today. That's not the only thing we prepared them for, because Brentford are also known for very good set-pieces but they are also, in my opinion, known for a fantastic counter-attack and that was their second goal. I think at this moment of time, and that's why it should never be seen as an excuse, but if I say it was a soft penalty I hope you guys are not going to tell me that is a bad excuse, but it was a very soft penalty to concede.

On tactical adjustments he made to the team at half-time...

Florian [Wirtz] played in the first half also a lot on the inside, but Mo played a little bit more central as well, like we did this week against [Eintracht] Frankfurt. If you are 2-1 down, I was expecting in the second half them maybe in moments to be a bit lower and then it's always good to have Mo on the side, where he can get his crosses in, his one-v-ones. But it wasn't as if the second half was completely ours, that was definitely not the situation, they were in the game a lot. Although we scored the 3-2 and had a few moments to score the 3-2, they definitely had their moments to also score the 4-1.

On whether it's one of the most disappointed he's been with a performance in his time at the club...

Yes, I think it's up there in my time here in terms of losing a game of football because normally when we are 2-1, 3-1 or 1-0 down... by the way, after we went 1-0 down, that was the only 20 or 25 minutes I really liked from our game today. Unfortunately, we had a great moment with Florian that didn't lead to a goal because you need to then have a little bit of luck and those moments can bring you back into the game and can give us the energy. But, after 30 minutes, I think they took the game again with long throw-ins, set-pieces and other moments where they were just really good. Again, please don't focus on what I've just said because they did many things well.

Then, I think it is a crucial moment when just before they scored the 2-0, there was a moment where Cody dribbled inside the box and they didn't play the ball. I think if you would show both situations - the penalty we conceded and that moment - to every referee in the world, they would tell you maybe both were nothing but if I had to give one of the two then I definitely would give the one to Cody. The bad luck for us was that I don't think the referee was intending to give a penalty for that but he thought he'd give them a free-kick, then the VAR said it was inside so then if you think it's a free-kick then it's a penalty. That bad luck maybe comes if you play a game of football like we did today.

On the reasons behind Liverpool's current form compared to last season…

Quite a few things you were just saying could have something to do with that. It's definitely that, I have said many times already, teams have a certain playing style against us, which is a very good strategy to play and we haven't found an answer yet. Every time going 1-0 down doesn't really help as well after five minutes. It's a bit of that, that teams know which strategy to play against us. We are still, even today when we don't play well, able to score two goals and create more chances than only the two we scored from open play. But you cannot even compete, which we don't do at the moment, we don't compete up there because we simply concede too many goals and that is not something I only look at our defence [for], that's something we do with 11 players together.

Yes, it definitely also has to do with if you change quite a lot in the summer then I think it's not a surprise that it can go a bit like this. But I didn't expect it to go with four losses in a row, let that be clear. That it is always a bit of a bumpy road if you change, that is not so surprising, but four losses in a row and I don't know if that has been as an excuse but from the last six games we have played, there have been five away. So, sometimes this is also not really helpful if you are on the run of form that we are.

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