Arne Slot delivers honest verdict on Mo Salah missed chances in Liverpool loss to Chelsea - 'we feel'

Arne Slot revealed he was pleased that Liverpool managed to create more goalscoring chances for Mo Salah - and refused to criticise the forward for not taking them against Chelsea.

Salah endured another difficult evening as the Reds slipped to a 2-1 defeat by the London outfit at Stamford Bridge. Having bagged 33 times in all competitions last season, the winger has managed only two Premier League goals so far.

Salah spurned two decent opportunities in the second half against Chelsea as Liverpool were condemned to a third successive loss. Ahead of the game, Slot admitted that the Egypt international is out of form but the Reds have struggled to ensure he has sights on goal from open play.

That was a positive that the Liverpool head coach took and that Salah is held to high standards because of what he’s produced throughout his Anfield career. Asked if Liverpool are missing Salah’s cutting edge, Slot said at his post-match press conference: “That's then interesting: did he create today so much because he didn't play during the week or did he miss the chances because he missed a bit of sharpness that he could have had if he would have played against Galatasaray?

“We will never know. What I like is that we brought him many times in the position he would like to be in and I would like him to be in, because he's shown in his career and since I'm here that in those positions he can score goals. And I think today he had many opportunities to do what he's done so often.

“But he is a human being and it's not like every chance he gets is always a goal – we feel sometimes it is because of what he's done last season and so many times. But he can also have a game where he has chances and a lot of times in promising positions and doesn't have a goal or an assist.”

Liverpool missed out on a chance to return to the top of the Premier League table with a defeat by Chelsea. Moises Caiceco opened the scoring for the home side in the 14th minute before Cody Gakpo equalised for the Reds in the second period.

However, for consecutive league games, Liverpool conceded a stoppage-time goal when Estevao Willian bagged in the 96th minute to send Chelsea into ecstasy. On the game, Slot said: Another disappointing loss. That's clear. Another game similar to the Palace game, although the game was completely different because the playing style of both teams are completely different.

“But not similar to the Palace game where in the first half I think we played not our best football but still were able to create three big chances. They've only had one and they've immediately scored it, which was completely different to the [Crystal] Palace game, where Palace created a lot of chances in the first half.

“And the second-half performance, like in Palace, I liked, we've created more than enough chances to score more than one goal – last week and today. I think there was a period of the game where I felt, 'Now we're going to win it.' We came a lot of times very close with chances but also with moments where we had four-versus-three in our favour, not outplaying it well enough in the last pass. And in the last 10 minutes, it was an end-to-end game, both teams could have won it. We didn't and Chelsea did.”