Arne Slot admitted that Liverpool was “not so aggressive” in the last third part, but felt that there was no “drop-off” in their achievements during Sunday's defeat against Chelsea.
The newly crowned champions only suffered their third loss of competition of the season after they had fallen 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.
Liverpool is only the fourth team that loses their first league match after she in 1997-98 (against Liverpool), Chelsea in 2005-06 (against Blackburn Rovers) and the Reds itself in 2019-20 (against Liverpool), Chelpool), Chelpool), Chelpool) and the Reds themselves.
Slot's side enjoyed 64.6% of the possession, but could only register two shots on the goal during the 90 minutes, and the Dutchman acknowledged that lack of an advanced edge was crucial.
“I didn't see a drop-off for many things,” he told BBC match of the day. “Today we could see why we won this competition.
“We brought the ball really well from the back. We came back after we were 2-0 and we did not give up. But as I said before, the margins are small. At times there was not a few percent.
“They were a constant threat to the counterattack, but they have a very good team; well organized and so many large individuals.
“Yes, we slipped twice with the goals we admitted, but the number of times we could play through Chelsea was much more than half a season ago.
“In the last third part we were not that aggressive and we missed a few percent to score the goal.”
Full -time at Stamford Bridge. #Cheliv pic.twitter.com/xfxui063f3
– Liverpool FC (@LFC) 4 May 2025
Virgil van Dijk gave Liverpool Hope with his 13th main goal from a corner in the Premier League; A count only improved by John Terry (19) and Dion Dublin (14).
However, it turned out to be academic and the Reds skipper was left frustrated that he and his teammates could not underline their status as the newly crowned champions.
“I think possession was pretty good, but when we didn't have the ball, the urgent was not great and they could find between the lines,” he said.
“To admit that early is not great, but if we start playing as we want to play, we can create opportunities. There were opportunities for us to score. Eventually they deserved the victory. That is the disappointing when we came here to win.
“Of course we tried it, but it wasn't great. We knew it would sometimes be difficult. We could have done better the way we defended as a team.
“Even when the job is ready, we came here to try to get a good result. It has to hurt. I am certainly disappointed.”