Arne Slot insists his Liverpool team aren’t lacking a fighting spirit as they head to West Ham United after suffering nine defeats in 12Arne Slot insists his side don't lack fighting spiritArne Slot insists his side don’t lack fighting spirit(Image: PA)

Arne Slot has denied his Liverpool team are lacking a fighting spirit, insisting his players are giving their all to address the club’s worst run since the 1950s.

The Premier League champions slumped to their ninth defeat in 12 games on Wednesday night when they were beaten 4-1 by PSV Einhoven in the Champions League, a game which saw them ship three goals or more for the third successive fixture.

The Reds now head to West Ham United in 12th position in the Premier League table and under fire over accusations that they wilt too easily when the going gets tough.

Slot, though, rejects that notion, saying: “In the first 85 minutes, or for large parts of the game (against PSV), I saw a team that have had a lot of setbacks recently and were still able to fight against that.

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“Not always with the end product you would like because fighting is of course part of what you should do but if fight was enough to win a game of football then it would be quite easy.

“You need a little bit of something extra as well, you need quality playing one-v-ones, getting crosses in the box and arriving with the right timing. But I see a team that never gives up.

“I see the running stats, I see it in the chances we create after we go down, but I agree the last five or ten minutes against Forest and the last five or ten minutes of yesterday’s game were not the same as the other minutes we played.

“For me that is not that this team lacks fighting spirit, no.

“Maybe in the last few minutes but not in the rest of the game.”

Liverpool-born Curtis Jones gave an impassioned interview after Wednesday night’s game where he bemoaned the lack of a combative edge in the squad at present, admitting: “We’re in the s*** and it needs to change.”

Slot, speaking in his open press conference on Thursday afternoon, said: “[Jones’s interview is] really good if you bring it to the game and this is what the players at least tried to do yesterday.

“All the data in terms of running data was really high, they had a lot of personal bests, so they tried a lot but it didn’t lead to anything in terms of result and I think this is what he is saying: if we can bring this as a team to the game it is the minimum I expect and the minimum fans expect from us, that we fight.

“I use the word fight, he probably uses other words, but I think we are on the same page when it comes to getting out of the situation.”