Liverpool have shipped 11 goals in six games ahead of the 2025-26 Premier League season, including two in Sunday’s Community Shield defeat, and Arne Slot wants to tighten up their defence
Arne Slot admits that Liverpool will need to ‘adjust’ defensively after conceding a concerning amount of goals in pre-season. The Reds conceded 11 times in six matches – once against Preston North End, four times against AC Milan, once against Yokohama F Marinos, three times over two games against Athletic Bilbao and twice against Crystal Palace.
Sunday’s penalty shootout defeat to Palace after a 2-2 draw in the Community Shield has raised questions about the security of Liverpool’s defence after a largely imperious campaign last time out. Slot’s side surrendered the advantage twice on Sunday, having taken first-half leads courtesy of new signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong.
Frimpong’s arrival is part of a new-look defensive line, with fellow full-back Milos Kerkez also making his first competitive start. There appear to have been teething problems in pre-season which Liverpool will hope won’t carry over into their Premier League title defence which gets underway on Friday at home to Bournemouth.
Slot recognises the concerning trend but doesn’t believe that the Reds gave up ‘that many chances’ against Palace until Ismaila Sarr equalised in the 77th minute. “What made us really strong last season was we only won mostly by a margin of one goal and that had mostly to do with us keeping a clean sheet or as a maximum conceding one goal,” the Dutchman explained post-match.
“Today we scored twice against Palace, last season we were not able to do that once – we beat them 1-0 and we had a 1-1 draw at Anfield. That’s the positive.
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“But conceding two; against a good team, by the way, that has made it really difficult for everyone last season and I’m expecting them [to] this season again. A lot of balls passed into our last line and a lot of crosses. For me, I felt that we didn’t give away that many chances until they scored the 2-2 and then they were threatening us more.”
Slot raised the point that Liverpool are embedding four new starters after keeping a consistent line-up last term. “We’ve indeed replaced four players and sometimes you need some time either to adapt offensively or adapt defensively,” the Reds boss added.
“But against Bilbao we didn’t concede one chance at all, maybe one, I don’t know, but we conceded two set-pieces, which are also a big part of football. But that’s not from open play.
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“I don’t feel we conceded that much today but again we conceded two goals because the first big chance they got resulted in the penalty. Maybe I forget a few chances but it felt to me that in the 78th minute, that was their second big chance of the game.
“But in general there were not many chances because they went to a low block [and] we had a lot of ball possession. But after the 2-2 they had [chances], so it needs maybe a little bit of adjustment defensively at the moment because we don’t concede a lot of chances but we do concede goals at the moment.”
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Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle ahead of the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games next season, an increase of up to 100 more.
