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liverpool head coach Arne Slaughter Striker Hugo Ekitic regretted his decision to stay on his feet and not try to win a penalty during a goalless draw with Leeds United, but insists he would never encourage his players to take advantage of physical contact.
The France international fought hard despite Pascal Struijk’s attempts to take him off the ball, although this ultimately created a chance for him Florian WirtzSlaughter believed a penalty would have resulted had the forward hit the turf.
The result was some determined Leeds defense at Anfield, which saw Liverpool held to a first goalless draw since December 2023, Jurgen Klopp’s final season and Slott’s first in his 84th game.
Asked whether the first-half incident was a penalty, the Dutchman, who insisted in August his side were “the most honest team in the Premier League”, said: “No, because he held on.
“If he went down it could have been a penalty but a lot of times this season when we’ve been fouled we haven’t gotten a penalty.
“We’ve conceded a few soft penalties this season but when Brentford were away at Cody Gakpo the referee said ‘play on’ so our players tried to stay on their feet so it was difficult for VAR to intervene.
“We’ve been doing the same thing. I don’t believe that in one season you get what you deserve, but over a long period of time, two, three, four seasons, I believe that.
“I don’t think I’m wrong, we’ve only taken one penalty this season, which is surprising for a team that has the most possession of the ball.
“But I’m not going to tell you that I encourage them to do that. We are who we are. We’re going to move forward.”
Slaughter admitted his side struggled against a well-organized opponent who kept a clean sheet for the first time since August.
“We are the team with the most possessions, but possession of the ball doesn’t mean much if you can’t create enough chances, and to create chances in the low post you need speed, individual special moments to create overloads.
“The other way is to create counterattacks, but you have 11 players in front of you and it’s not easy to find free agents close to the goal. We saw a team that kept trying.”
However, the Leeds manager Daniel Falk Very impressed with the performance.
“Obviously we need a special performance to take away a point,” he said.
“Obviously we were going to suffer in a couple of periods but we didn’t give them clear chances.
“We needed a really balanced performance to come back from a tough game but we really deserved the clean sheet which is good for the mood and confidence. It was a really good day for sure.”
The only downside is that captain Ethan Ampadu received a yellow card, which means he will miss Sunday’s game against Manchester United.
“I had to calm myself down because it’s still hard for me to come to terms with this,” he added.