The Dutchman said he often “blamed” them for not taking a genuine foul when they had the option but also felt their positive approach was in part responsible for their success last season.

He has key midfielder Ryan Gravenberch missing through suspension for Friday’s season-opener at home to Bournemouth, while Slot was misguided in his interpretation of why his reasoning was based on a general viewpoint.

Slot thought the Netherlands international had been dismissed for a second bookable offence in the final match of last season against Crystal Palace, when in fact he received a straight red for bringing down Daichi Kamada as he prepared to race through on goal.

“If there is one team in the league that is, in my opinion, the most honest when we play – I sometimes blame them that they never try to make from a foul a little bit more – and never dives and never time delays and all these kind of things, then it is us,” said Slot.

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“In the (Community Shield) game against Palace they hold Florian (Wirtz) in midfield and he didn’t fall over and the referee says ‘If you don’t fall, I don’t give a free-kick’, which is a little bit weird.

“Than a fraction later they fell down in a moment which wasn’t even a foul and the referee thought ‘Oh, he fell down so it probably is a foul’.

“We had much more ball possession than Palace but we made 13 fouls and they made five.

That tells you also about who we are.”

Slot said despite the increased challenge that defending their title would pose – and the tactics opponents may employ – he did not want his team to become more streetwise.

“Maybe for me to use the right words in English, you can never be too honest.

But I saw this week Fenerbahce-Feyenoord and saw a lot of moments where players were really smart,” he added.

“These kind of things, should we use them?

I’m not so sure.

“For me the best game last season I was part of was Paris St Germain against us, especially our home game.

“I liked that a little bit more than the away game.

It was so high intensity because both teams were just here to play and not to try to pretend a foul was more or time delaying.

“I am most proud of the fact of who we are and we won the league last season with the team we were so let us stay who we are.

“We are a very fair team, that is clear also maybe the reason we won the league so why change something which went well.”

Off the field Liverpool have agreed a £26million plus add-ons deal to sign Parma defender Giovanni Leoni to bolster their options in central defence, where they had only two specialists in the position for pre-season after an injury to Joe Gomez from which he had only returned this week.

The 18-year-old is expected to undergo a medical and Slot said: “The clubs have agreed a deal but he hasn’t signed for us yet.

The moment when he signs for us I can go into more detail.”

Slot, however, refused to speculate on their pursuit of Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi as talks continue.

“He is not our player and unfortunately he was the captain of the team we lost against last Sunday,” he added.