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Arne Slot gestures during the Community Shield match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Wembley(Image: Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)

Arne Slot admits Liverpool’s defending continues to cause concern after his side suffered more Wembley woe.

The Reds were beaten 3-2 on penalties by Crystal Palace after a 2-2 draw in the Community Shield on Sunday afternoon.

New signings Hugo Ekitike and Jeremie Frimpong netted in the first half either side of a Jean-Philippe Mateta penalty only for Ismailia Sarr to force a shoot-out with an equaliser 13 minutes from time.

Mohamed Salah, Alexis Mac Allister and Harvey Elliott then all failed from the spot for the Reds, who lost the League Cup final to Newcastle United on their most recent previous Wembley visit in March.

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With Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez also starting, Liverpool began the game with four new players and Slot believes it will clearly take time for the revamped side to gel.

“We have indeed replaced four players and need some time to either adapt offensively or defensively,” said the Reds boss.

“Against Bilbao, we didn't concede one chance at all, maybe one but we conceded two set-pieces, which are also a big part of football but not from open play.

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“I don't feel we conceded that much today but conceded two goals because the first big chance they got resulted in the penalty.

“Maybe I forgot a few chances but in the 78th minute, it felt that was their second big chance of the game but, in general, there were not many chances because they went to a low block, we had a lot of ball possession but after the 2-2 they did (have chances).

“It maybe needs a little bit of adjustment because we don't concede a lot of chances but we do concede a lot of goals.”

Liverpool have kept only one clean sheet during pre-season having only managed two shut-outs in the final 12 games of last season.

And Slot has called for a greater balance with an attack he regards improved on the title-winning term regards creating chances.

“In the whole pre-season we saw we are able to create more than last season, are more comfortable on the ball, create more opportunities, chances, dominate maybe even more," said the Dutchman.

"We had a lot of ball possession last season and it didn’t always lead to promising situations.

“Now we are better in creating and getting promising situations than we were in the whole of last season.

“But the other side is also true that we have conceded four against Milan, one against the Japanese team, two against Bilbao and two again today.

“What made us really strong last season is we only won mostly by a margin of one goal and that had mostly to do with us keeping a clean sheet or conceding a maximum of one.

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“Today we scored twice against Palace and weren’t able to do that once last season.

But conceding two against a good team, for me I felt we didn’t give away to many chances until they made it 2-2 and they were threatening us more.”


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