Arne Slot makes 'lucky' admission immediately after Liverpool's loss to Crystal Palace

Arne Slot admitted that one of Liverpool’s biggest strengths is now a weakness as they were condemned to their first loss of the campaign,

The Reds slipped to a 2-1 defeat by Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park and there could be few complaints. The visitors were battered in the first half and, by Slot’s own admisison, were lucky they went into the interval just a goal behind. Ismaila Sarr slammed home from a corner,

Liverpool did improve after the break but still struggled to create clear-cut chances. They netted yet another late goal with three minutes of normal time remaining when Federico Chiesa bagged off the bench. But the Reds got a taste of their own medicine as they conceded in the seventh minute of stoppage-time when Eddie Nketiah netted following a long throw.

Liverpool boss Slot told Sky Sports: "Very difficult first half. They did really well and deserved to be 1-0 up, we were lucky it was only 1-0. "Second half it was the opposite. It took a while before we scored and we did with a few minutes left. But from a second set piece they won the game.

"If you want to compete you need a very positive balance with set pieces and even more in this league. It was one of our biggest strengths last season, now we have conceded two against Newcastle and two here. But this league is more and more and more about set pieces."

Their game style fits really well to their players, They have a low block with fast players on the break and a big man in Mateta. We had a lot of problems in the first half. The rest of time we had possession but very hard to beat that low block."

"It is never ideal when you concede in extra time of extra time. But there was a sub so half a minute extra was fair. I have to check when they exactly scored but we have to defend the throw-in better. We take learnings from all the games we have played and we can take even more from a game like this."