LIVERPOOL, England — Arne Slot said his Liverpool team have lost their aura of invincibility following a 1-1 draw with newly-promoted Sunderland at Anfield on Wednesday.
The Premier League champions fell behind on Chemsdine Talbi’s second-half strike before Florian Wirtz‘s effort deflected off Nordi Mukiele to rescue a late point.
The result means Liverpool are without a win in their last three matches at Anfield in all competitions, after defeats to Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven.
Asked whether he believes the stadium has lost its fear factor for opponents, Slot said: “Not Anfield, for sure, but it is clear that teams who play us now think they can get a result. Not only think, because that has been shown this season. Even in the games we won we fueled the confidence for other teams that there is something possible because the wins we had at the beginning of the season weren’t easy ones as well.”
Slot opted to leave Mohamed Salah on the bench on Wednesday for the second consecutive game, however the Egypt international replaced Cody Gakpo at halftime.
Speaking about his decision to bring the forward on in the second half, Slot said: “In my opinion, Cody struggled to dominate the one vs. ones and if you want to have any chance of scoring when they were pressing high you need a moment of magic or a set piece and Cody struggled to find that moment.
“In the first half we played Dominik Szoboszlai on the right and I changed to Mo on the right side and Wirtz on the left. We hardly conceded [a chance], but it was difficult to create that moment of magic.”
The result leaves Liverpool in eighth place on 22 points from 14 games, 11 behind leaders Arsenal but only two points out of the top four in the Premier League.
Up next for Slot’s side is a trip to face Leeds United on Dec. 6.
