Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has urged his players to “get the maximum” out of the remainder of their season but admitted he does not know what that will be.
A 1-0 defeat against Galatasaray leaves his side with work to do for next week’s home Champions League round of 16 second leg while they remain behind their rivals in the race for a top-five spot in the Premier League.
An FA Cup quarterfinal trip to Manchester City next month will also provide a serious challenge to their other hope of winning silverware this season.
Liverpool’s inability to string together a run of convincing performances and results has plagued them all season, but with two months remaining time is running out for them to find that form.
“What I want is that every single player gets the maximum out of every single training session and games we are playing from now until the end of the season,” Slot said ahead of the visit of a hopelessly out of form Tottenham.
“That is the aim for me and that should be the aim for the players because that’s the only way to get the maximum out of what is there, what is in it for us.
“What that’s exactly going to be, that’s not always so easy to say in advance because sometimes you need a little bit of luck.”
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Slot is relying on his squad’s quality to get them over the line but, while on paper they are much better placed in that respect than Sunday’s opponents — who have lost six in a row — it is the application of that which has been lacking.
Tuesday’s defeat in Istanbul was another example of them failing to make the most of their opportunities and compounding that by allowing their opponents to seize the initiative with a goal from a set-piece, which has been a problem for them all season.
“In the first 15 to 20 minutes there were three or four moments when we should have scored and then there was a moment which completely changed the momentum of the game: conceding a set piece,” Slot added.
“That is not what we are accepting, we are not saying ‘OK, we concede a goal after 20 minutes then everything will be much worse than it was before’ but we didn’t play our best game of the season, that is also completely clear.
“For an away game in Europe we were able to generate enough chances to score a goal but we have struggled throughout this whole season with converting the chances we have got and unfortunately we have the bad cocktail of conceding goals from the few chances we concede.
“As long as we cannot repair that then every game is going to be difficult, but I have confidence we are able to do better because of the quality players we have.”
While Slot is convinced luck continues to play a part, the statistics relating to encounters against Tottenham would suggest Sunday’s game is one they should win.
Liverpool have lost just one of the last 31 Anfield league meetings — in May 2011 — and at home in the Premier League they have 22 wins, nine draws and just two defeats.
Spurs’ overall league record at Anfield is terrible, with just six wins and 53 defeats in 82 visits.
