Arne Slot reacts to Liverpool boos as Anfield angry after Spurs draw | Football | Sport

Arne Slot says the frustrations of the Liverpool crowd are “completely normal” after the Reds slumped to a draw at home to struggling Tottenham. The full-time whistle was greeted with jeers at Anfield after Richarlison’s 90th-minute equaliser dealt the latest gut punch to Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League qualification. It also improved Spurs’ chances of avoiding an embarrassing relegation to the Championship although they still remain without a win in 2026.

This was the eighth different occasion this season that Liverpool have thrown away points in the 90th minute of a Premier League game but just the second time at Anfield. Their stoppage-time woes have cost them 11 points. If not for all those collapses, Slot’s champions would be second in the league, above Manchester City. Instead, they are 12 behind City – who they lost to late on at Anfield in February – and are scrapping desperately for a top-five finish to compete in Europe’s premier competition again next term.

Liverpool end the weekend in fifth but could have gone fourth, above Aston Villa, with a win over Spurs. Villa and Chelsea‘s defeats presented an ideal opportunity for the Merseyside club but they produced another poor performance and paid the price at the death. Spurs had lost six in a row before their trip to Liverpool, with the hosts’ failure to beat them sparking anger inside Anfield.

Asked about the booing by Sky Sports, Slot admitted: “It’s completely normal. If the team you are supporting so many times is dropping points against teams you don’t expect them to drop points against, if so many times this happens in the last seconds of a game, then I think we all feel a lot of frustration.

“They definitely [feel it], because they’ve experienced this far too many times than they are used to, and that’s completely normal that they show their frustration, the frustration that is felt by me, by the players and also by our fans.

“And I’m 100 per cent sure that if they show up Wednesday, they will be supportive again from the start, but if the team doesn’t perform to the standards they are used to, I think it’s completely normal that they are frustrated.”

Dominik Szoboszlai put Liverpool in front with another Kop end free-kick in the first half. But after he and his team-mates failed to cling on to victory, the Hungarian was scathing in his own post-match interview with the same broadcaster.

“We have to wake up. If we keep going like this, next season we should be happy if we play Conference League,” Szoboszlai said. “In the first half, we played very well. We controlled the whole game, they hardly created many chances.

“Second half, I don’t know, we just don’t do the same things like in the first half. The question is why? We will sit down together. This is the most difficult time. We have to stick together.

“I didn’t hear the boos [at full-time] but I can understand because last season we became champions and this season we are not performing in the way that we should be. They should stay behind us because last season, when we were champions four games before the end, everybody was happy. Support us now when we’re in difficult times.”

Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher laid into his former club’s performance, calling it “an absolute disaster”. The Sky Sports co-commentator said on air: “They have actually made Tottenham look like a decent team. The defending was absolutely shocking from Liverpool. I’ve been saying all half that Liverpool have been sleepwalking into this. It was an awful performance.

“No disrespect to Tottenham but they are the worst team in the Premier League now, probably for the last couple of months. They are exactly who you want to play, playing at home, the incentive of your results this weekend and to put in a performance like that.

“But it’s been like that all season. And the big question on everybody’s lips is that down to the manager or the makeup of the squad? Could a new manager completely revitalise these type of players and bring that energy and sort of intensity back into this team? I’m not sure.

“I think a lot of it goes back to what happened in the summer, the profile of the players that came in and there’s just too many players who just want to play when the ball’s at their feet. They don’t want to dig in and make it difficult. That’s why it’s so easy to play against this Liverpool team.”