Liverpool: Arne Slott says this season is his toughest as a manager ‘by a mile’

This was a press conference in which Slott mentioned the “setbacks,” “beats,” and “bad luck” his team has faced this season.

There were plenty of reasons, from long absences and late goals to the time it took new signings to adapt to life in the Premier League.

“Even if we sign a player [Jeremy Jacquet]”He doesn’t play for us until he’s injured,” Slot said after Jacquet, who will join Liverpool for £60m in the summer, suffered a shoulder injury at the weekend while playing for Rennes.

However, Slott stressed that Liverpool’s focus must remain on improving their performance, even if it sometimes looks like they have “tried a lot of different things”.

“The question is, are we unlucky or is this part of our identity? This is something we can only find out in the next three to four months,” Slott said.

It didn’t sound like he was making excuses — rather, Slott was refreshingly honest about the array of challenges his team faced and acknowledged his mistakes.

There was a small smile when he admitted that this was the toughest season he had ever had in his career. Within that, he also glimpsed how difficult everything was for him at one of the biggest clubs in the world.

Defeat to Sunderland on Wednesday will only increase the pressure on the Dutchman. As he said, it would not be acceptable for Liverpool to miss out on the Champions League.

But there was also a sense of challenge and belief within Slott, who still believes Liverpool are capable of doing “special” things this season.

If not, the voices about his future at the club will grow.