{"id":513266,"date":"2025-10-20T02:04:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T02:04:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/513266\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T02:04:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T02:04:22","slug":"arne-slot-bemoans-man-uniteds-low-block-and-long-balls-and-reveals-the-area-causing-him-most-concern-after-liverpool-were-consigned-to-another-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/513266\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot bemoans Man United’s ‘low block’ and ‘long balls’ and reveals the area causing him most concern after Liverpool were consigned to another defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

By TUM BALOGUN, SPORTS REPORTER<\/a> <\/p>\n

Published: 17:24 EDT, 19 October 2025 | Updated: 17:24 EDT, 19 October 2025 <\/p>\n

Arne Slot<\/a> hit out at Manchester United<\/a>‘s defensive approach after Liverpool<\/a> slumped to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions with a 2-1 loss at Anfield.<\/p>\n

The Dutchman said his side were made to chase the game against a ‘low block’ and a barrage of ‘long balls’ after conceding inside 62 seconds to Bryan Mbeumo.<\/p>\n

Cody Gakpo<\/a> drew the hosts level midway through the second half, but Harry Maguire<\/a>‘s 84th-minute header condemned the champions to their third successive Premier League<\/a>\u00a0defeat.<\/p>\n

‘It is always difficult to play against a team that defends in a low block and mainly plays the long ball,’ Slot told Sky Sports.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘It makes it even more difficult when you go one down after one minute when one of our players are on the floor.<\/p>\n

‘If you would have told me before the game that against the low block, against so many long balls, that we would have created as many chances as we did I would have not expected us to lose. But that is what we did.<\/p>\n

\"Arne <\/p>\n

Arne Slot hit out at Manchester United’s defensive approach after Liverpool slumped to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The Dutchman said his side were made to chase the game against a ‘low block’ and a barrage of ‘long balls’ after conceding inside 62 seconds to Bryan Mbeumo<\/p>\n

‘We had enough chances to score more than one goal, but on the other hand again conceding two and one of the two was the set piece.’<\/p>\n

Slot’s frustration grew as he compared Sunday’s loss to recent defeats against Crystal Palace and Chelsea, pointing to a recurring weakness from set pieces that has blunted Liverpool’s title defence.<\/p>\n

Asked whether the pattern felt familiar, he replied: ‘Yes. Of course we concede maybe one or two extra chances apart from the goals we conceded but you always have to take extra risk when you are 1-0 down.<\/p>\n

‘Taking that into account, we hardly conceded a chance and we are waiting for us to score a goal, we have to defend the set piece.<\/p>\n

‘Like against Palace and a few other moments this season, we’ve conceded on a set piece and that is hard to take because it is very difficult to win a game of football if you have a negative balance on set pieces.’<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s early setback came when Virgil van Dijk collided with Alexis Mac Allister, leaving the midfielder floored as Mbeumo raced through to score past Giorgi Mamardashvili.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Slot’s side struck the woodwork twice through Gakpo before the Dutchman finally equalised, but Maguire’s late header restored United’s lead.<\/p>\n

The result leaves Liverpool third in the table, four points behind Arsenal, having led the Premier League by five before the international break.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The pattern of the loss followed defeats in the Reds’ previous two league matches against Crystal Palace and Chelsea\u00a0<\/p>\n

United, meanwhile, recorded their first victory at Anfield since 2016 and their second straight league win under Ruben Amorim.<\/p>\n

Liverpool now face a crucial Champions League tie in midweek before travelling to Brentford next weekend, seeking to arrest a slide that has stalled their title defence and exposed frailties from dead-ball situations.<\/p>\n

Share or comment on this article:
\n Arne Slot bemoans Man United’s ‘low block’ and ‘long balls’ and reveals the area causing him most concern after Liverpool were consigned to another defeat<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By TUM BALOGUN, SPORTS REPORTER Published: 17:24 EDT, 19 October 2025 | Updated: 17:24 EDT, 19 October 2025…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":513267,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[1121,748,22690,92,393,94,4884,179,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-513266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-arne-slot","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cody-gakpo","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-liverpool","16":"tag-sport","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115404044065691724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513266","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513266"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513266\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}