Liverpool conceded from yet another set piece against Aston Villa and Arne Slot said what we have all been thinking as he rued his side’s inability to defend balls into the box.
With 17 shots to Villa’s nine, and an xG of 2.44 to the hosts’ 0.73, the statistics clearly weighed heavily in the Reds’ favour.
Yet again, they were left to settle for a point, though.
The first goal Liverpool conceded started from a free-kick outside the box, with the Reds’ inability to clear their lines leading to Youri Tielemans levelling the scores.
Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Slot bemoaned the Reds allowing Villa to equalise so easily, seeing it as a big reason why his side didn’t win.
“Not so happy, to be honest,” Slot said.
“I think if you watch the game back, we created far more chances than them and did everything we had to do to get a result.
“The only thing that wasn’t perfect was conceding a set piece, because if you concede a set piece in a big game against a very strong opponent, it’s very hard to win a game.
“It is never ideal if you want to win a big game, you have to be balanced in your set pieces – you score one, they score one.”
Slot was also adamant that Liverpool did more than enough to get all three points, but as has too often been the case of late, victory wasn’t achieved.
“We’re happy where we are, but I think a bit too much we’ve played games now where we deserved more than we got,” Slot added.
“I don’t mean the Everton game when I look at the quality of play, but it was of course a big disappointment to concede in the last minute.
“I look at the Newcastle game when we conceded in the last minute and some other games, today included, where in my opinion, if there was one of the two teams that deserved to win, it was us.”
While there is no need for an overreaction to this result, there is no doubt that Liverpool have to sharpen up in facets of their play.
Their set-piece issues are becoming a worry, with six goals now conceded from them in the Premier League this season.
Liverpool have also scored the joint-lowest goals from set-pieces (three), along with Fulham, suggesting that both quality of delivery and level of finishing haven’t been good enough.
The Reds feel more fallible than they did earlier in the campaign, with too many matches feeling chaotic, but they remain a great position and this run of away games has been particularly tough.
