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Liverpool's head coach has revealed that the Anfield decision-makers share his views regarding the team's slump and he refuses to compromise their forward-thinking philosophy in pursuit of a solution. The tactician admitted that six defeats in seven outings was unacceptable ahead of the weekend fixture with Villa.

Growing Expectations During Difficult Period

Slot accepted the expectations were high before his rotated squad suffered Carabao Cup elimination against their Premier League rivals. However, he emphasized that this pressure to arrest the slide is not coming from the Anfield hierarchy or football administration following a summer transfer outlay of almost £450m.

"Our views align," remarked the Liverpool boss, whose team next week face Los Blancos in the European competition and visit Manchester City in the domestic competition.

Player Depth Stays Unquestioned

The coach is convinced his team "possess an exceptional group if they are all fit and fully prepared for the fixture list". He mentioned that the transfer window acquisitions in talents including the German international and Alexander Isak, who is likely to miss out again against Aston Villa through fitness issues, had left the club "in a strong situation for the short-term future and the years to come".

Gelling Difficulties

When questioned about why his team were taking so long to gel, he answered: "That question isn't constructive. 'What's causing this?' I provide reasons and people say I'm making justifications. I can list five or six reasons why we are struggling for victories or losing as much as we do but, as I consistently state, there are inadequate reasons to have a performance streak as we had now."

• Regardless of whether I could come up with multiple factors
• When you are Liverpool you cannot lose
• In truth six out of seven

Backline Performance

Only the Clarets (twenty-one) have faced more big chances from regular play this season than Liverpool (nineteen). The table-toppers, the North London club, have allowed just two. Yet the manager disputes the team has been overly exposed and maintains there is no reason to abandon offensive philosophy for a more pragmatic style after 10 games without a clean sheet.

"In my view we're not conceding a lot of chances so I find no basis to change our playing style entirely but we need to do better in preventing goals," he said.

Specific Instances

"When facing United, how many opportunities did we allow? Versus the German side when we were leading 3-1, we scarcely gave up a effort at our net. In every match we have played so far we haven't conceded a lot of chances. Definitely not. We do give away a bit more than the previous campaign but that is related to us being trailing by a goal so you become more adventurous. But overall I don't feel that our challenge is that we concede too many chances. Our issue is we fail to convert the openings we produce."