Arne Slot responds to Liverpool sack threat and hits back at critics

Liverpool boss Arne Slot is adamant that he still has the full backing of the club's ownership despite a string of four consecutive Premier League losses. The reigning champions were comfortably ahead by five points before suffering a blow at Crystal Palace in late September, which was followed by defeats to Chelsea, Manchester United and Brentford.

Adding to their woes, Liverpool also lost to Galatasaray in the Champions League and again to Palace in the Carabao Cup, meaning they face Aston Villa on a dismal run of six losses in seven matches. If things don't improve, last season's title winners could find themselves trailing 10 points behind leaders Arsenal by the time Unai Emery's squad arrives at Anfield on Saturday evening.

However, Slot insists his discussions with Richard Hughes and Michael Edwards, have remained consistent throughout this difficult period.

"For me they say similar things," Slot said. "I speak mainly to Richard and once in a while to the others (Edwards and FSG). They also see similar things as what I see.

"For me the conversations haven't changed a lot. We always talk about the game and it's always nicer to talk about the game if you have won than if you have lost."

Slot also hit back at his critics following the midweek defeat to Crystal Palace, after which he was questioned for making wholesale changes to the team.

He said: "Tell me if I'm wrong but I think during the week [the reaction] was about when I said something about the squad we are having, and that could have been seen as criticising or an excuse?

"What I meant was, if these players are all fit we have so much quality. This club is in such a good place when you look at the quality we have for the short-term future and the long-term future.

"But - I've used Alex (Alexander Isak) as an example but I don't want to go into every single player because players sometimes don't like it when they are named as being fit or not - not all of them were ready from the start to play three games in seven days.

"And then when you get four injuries like we have at the moment, it is a struggle going into a programme like this. I used this to explain my line-up on Wednesday. I didn't use it as an excuse for losing against Brentford or the loss before or the loss before.

"I did it because Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) and Virgil (van Dijk) had to play a lot. Joe Gomez missed out on the whole of pre-season. Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) missed out on the whole of pre-season.

"Alex missed out on the whole of pre-season. If you have 20 but three are not available, and that 20 includes Rio Ngumoha and Trey Nyoni who are youngsters and not able to play three games in a week as well, then the focus is on the 15 others, and maybe not all of them are used to a Premier League [or] Champions League game every three days.

"By the way, it would also have been difficult even for the team of last season if we had to play three in seven days, which is the worst scenario you can have.

"I only used it to explain my line-up, not as an excuse for losing against Brentford or Manchester United. We have an unbelievable squad if they are all fit and all ready for the programme we are facing."