Brighton deserves to win says Slot, blame defeat on injury

Liverpool manager Arne Slot says Brighton & Hove Albion deserved to win based on the team’s performance in the second half.

“But in the second half Brighton were the better team on the pitch and they deserved to win,” Slot said in his post match press conference, adding that the first half was an equal game between both teams.

The Reds fell to a 2-1 defeat at Amex Stadium on Saturday after a Danny Welbeck brace secured the points for the hosts.

The striker’s goals came either side of a well-taken equaliser by Milos Kerkez.

Slot assessed Liverpool’s performance following their 10th defeat of the season at Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League.

The Liverpool manager said what went wrong for the Reds started off with the lead-up to the game, as so many times happened this season.

“When we played a very good game and we thought we could bring that level to the next game, or even better, we had Mo Salah injured and we had Alisson [Becker] injured.

“After two minutes Hugo Ekitike [is] out, so that has happened so many times to us this season and again now,” he said.

He added that Liverpool have not been so clinical this season compared to his first season in charge.

“What happened a lot this season is also that the first chance of the other team immediately went in,” he said.

Slot said Liverpool will have to continue without one of the best strikers the league has seen in the last three or four years for the rest of the season.

“Alexander Isak, one of the best goalscorers the league has seen in the last eight years, was not available with Mo Salah. And then missing out on Hugo Ekitike, who has had a lot of impact this season, him being out,” he said.

Slot also spoke about his team’s selection challenges following Liverpool’s back-to-back engagement in the League and Champions League this season.

“Not as all the other Champions League teams [are] playing on Sunday, but we had to play on Saturday in the early kick-off.”

He however admitted that Liverpool’s situation got worse after the Reds dropped points against a relegation threatened Wolves.

“But the main problem is that we are in this position because we dropped points at Wolves in the last minute with a deflected shot a week ago,” Slot said.

Liverpool not 6th in the Premier League on 49 points with 5th placed Chelsea who played Everton later on Saturday.

Brighton on the other hand moved to 7th in the Premier League, four points behind Liverpool.

However, Slot believes the defeat will hurt Liverpool a lot because of the reigning champions push for Champions League football next season.

“Although we had a big win [against Galatasaray] during the week. I think you cannot compare Brighton away with Wolves away.

“You cannot compare a game that we should have won in terms of chance creation and every other metric there is in football to a game like here.

“Brighton away, that’s a difficult game for any team, [not just] for us, but for any team to go here, especially if you miss out like us on a few very influential players.

“We’re talking about the No.9 position but again I had to make a substitution and a full-back position with a player that’s not used to playing there,” Slot said.