BOURNEMOUTH, England – Arne Slot admitted Liverpool “ran out of steam” in their 3-2 loss to AFC Bournemouth and said they had only themselves to blame for dropping more points in the Premier League.
The Reds overturned a two-goal deficit at the Vitality Stadium before Amine Adli scored the winner in the 95th minute to seal three points for the hosts.
– Weekly transfer window: Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City, the wonderkid of the Bundesliga
This means that Slot's team has already gone five league games without a win, having added only four points from the last 15 on offer.
Liverpool remain fourth, 14 points behind leaders Arsenal, but could end the weekend in eighth place.
“It's frustrating because it's always frustrating to concede a goal, but especially if there's no time to get it back,” the Liverpool manager said. “But I think it's safe to say they could have made it 3-2 a little earlier. When we made it 2-2 we were still trying, but I think it's safe to say some of our players ran out of energy.
“I can't even criticize them because two days ago we played away from home in Europe and we are the only team that played in the Champions League on Wednesday and we have only two days in between, another away game against one of the most intense teams in the league.”
Slot made just one change to the lineup (Cody Gakpo replacing Hugo Ekitike) as they recorded a 3-0 Champions League victory in Marseille on Wednesday night.
Liverpool's injury list includes defenders Conor Bradley and Giovanni Leoni, as well as forwards Alexander Isak and Federico Chiesa.
“As you'll probably see, I mainly played against the same players because of who we have available,” Slot added.
“So what shouldn't have happened if in the end you have to win because then that's more difficult? That's what you saw in the last 10 minutes because the rest of us dominated the game.”
Liverpool conceded two goals in seven minutes of the first half, during which they also lost defender Joe Gomez to injury.
Slot's side were temporarily reduced to 10 men when Álex Jiménez scored Bournemouth's second seven minutes later, as substitute Wataru Endo was still waiting to replace the injured Gómez, who collided with goalkeeper Alisson Becker while trying to block the opening goal.
When asked if the period was responsible for the result, Slot said: “There were only seven minutes where I wouldn't even say we were suffering, but where the other team was also in the game, and in those seven minutes we conceded two.
“Of course, the second was when we were down to 10 because after the first goal Joe Gómez had to retire due to an injury. He wanted to try. He thought he could, but then he couldn't.
“And maybe that sums up our season. Every time it's something else. Every time it's something special how we concede. But we concede, and the only ones to blame are ourselves.”
PA contributed to this report.
