Liverpool manager Arne Slot says his side were “a bit unlucky” to lose 1-0 to Preston North End in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Friday - because they only conceded a single shot while peppering the Championship side’s goal. Freddie Woodman was a busy man in the Preston net but kept a clean sheet as the Reds fell to defeat.
Robbie Brady’s goal was the difference as he lobbed goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros from 40 yards in the first half after robbing the ball from Conor Bradley.
Liverpool utilised two completely different line-ups in either half and gave minutes to 25 players overall. Mohamed Salah, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Jarell Quansah and Dominik Szoboszlai all started the first 45 minutes before a more youthful XI took to the pitch after half-time.
Despite losing, Slot says the focus was putting the team through their paces and insists his team were simply just unfortunate having had far more shots on target than their Championship opponents.
The Dutchman, after his first match on the touchline, told LFCTV: “After two weeks of tough training sessions, it's important to play a game as well. The most important thing was that everybody was fit before the game and they stayed fit during the game as well.
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“It has been a good two weeks. Unfortunately, the result today was not what we wanted but they stayed fit, many of them got minutes, and I saw a lot of young players who got a few minutes. That is a good thing.”
Slot, asked if he saw things on the pitch that Liverpool had been practicing in training, said: “Definitely. I’ve seen this a lot during the training sessions; a bit more than today but they also had to deal with the playing style of the opponent.
“Like I said, we controlled the game completely and we only conceded one shot. We had some good build-up and some good chances in the first half. Second half, I didn't think we did that much which is normal because there were a lot of young players who didn't play in their normal positions as well.
“We couldn't ask for more from the boys in the first two weeks. They worked really hard and tried to implement the ideas and it is not that we only bring new ideas — a lot things here were really good. We were a bit unlucky to lose 1-0.”
Slot is still without a number of first-team players after Euro 2024 and Copa America. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joe Gomez, Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz went all the way to the final of the two competitions with England, Argentina and Colombia respectively.
The 45-year-old coach, who flies to America with his squad in the coming days, continued: “Every session and every game gives you new ideas of where you have to work on but there are still 10 or 11 players who played many minutes last season. They are not in the building yet.
“It was good to see some young players do some good things. The ones we have, they stayed fit and showed some good things today and especially in the last two weeks. That is something to take into our USA tour.”
Liverpool’s three-game US tour sees them face Real Betis in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday 27 July before going head-to-head with more familiar rivals Arsenal in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on Thursday 1 August. The third and final match comes against Manchester United in Columbia, South Carolina on Sunday 4th.
An Anfield friendly against Sevilla is scheduled for the following Sunday (August 11). The Merseyside club then kickstart their first full Premier League season without Jurgen Klopp in charge since 2015 against newly-promoted Ipswich Town at Portman Road on Saturday 17 August in the day's lunchtime kick-off.
