Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from Echo or go back to LFC Live.
SportFootballArne SlotArne Slot on the injury to Alexander Isak and why he won't use injuries as an excuse for Liverpool's 3-2 defeat to Manchester UnitedArne Slot refused to use the absence of Alexander Isak as an excuse as Liverpool lost 3-2 to Manchester United on Sunday afternoon.And the Reds boss confirmed that £125m striker Isak will play again before the end of the campaign after sitting out the game at Old Trafford with a minor groin complaint.Slot went into the match without Isak, who is the most expensive player in British football history, 17-goal top scorer Hugo Ekitike and Mohamed Salah, who was sidelined with a hamstring issue.United took a two-goal lead into half time before Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo restored parity 10 minutes into the second period. However, Kobbie Mainoo steered home a late winner for the hosts and Slot did not point towards his lack of options up top for an 11th defeat of the term.FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FC FACEBOOK PAGE!
All the latest news and analysis from Anfield on the Liverpool Echo's dedicated LFC Facebook page"No, Isak isn’t [out for the season]," Slot confirmed. "We are expecting him back very soon."There is no excuse.
I haven't spoken about missing players and I won't talk about it now."If we can play a second half like we did there is no necessity to have other players here."But we weren't able, with this team, to have a chance of winning this game and we were quite close."But as always, one moment of switching off leads to us conceding the goal when there was a moment where it was - I think the Liverpool journalists recognise it so many teams this season - it was waiting for us to score one and then we conceded because we switched off for one or two seconds in a crucial moment."Slot added: "You know when you come here that they want to start strong and aggressive but we were aware of that."In the first six minutes, I saw us not picking up the second balls although we had a few moments where we pressed them high but if you concede after six minutes in this stadium, you always know you are going to face a struggle period afterwards."After us conceding, we controlled the ball possession but one of the first tmes after we lost the ball, they counterattacked us for the 2-0 and then everything we have done before deserves a lot of criticism."I don’t think there was many differences between first and second but we were able to control their counter-attacks better and created more from the ball possession we had."Choose Liverpool Echo as a 'Preferred Source' on Google News for quick access to the news you value.Liverpool FCArne SlotManchester United FC
