The China Mail - Liverpool's Slot disagrees with dad over 'exciting' football

The Premier League leaders, six points clear of second-placed Arsenal, play relegation-threatened Ipswich on Saturday but the Dutchman is expecting a difficult game.

"They've been a bit unlucky sometimes in the last moments of games," said Slot, who faced Ipswich in his first game in charge at Anfield in August, winning 2-0.

"The second half of the season is always more difficult than the first half because some teams strengthen themselves during the winter break.

"Many teams work with their manager for half a season and that normally leads to a team becoming better."

Kieran McKenna's Ipswich have had the occasional encouraging result but last week they were hammered 6-0 by Manchester City.

Slot was asked at his pre-match press conference whether Liverpool fans would expect a similar result at Anfield.

"That is difficult for fans, and my father is a fan as well, and when I call him after the game he can also say it wasn't as exciting as other games of Liverpool when he watched the game against Lille (a 2-1 Champions League win in midweek)," he said.

"And then I have to try to explain to him that these games you can easily lose if you're starting to force all kinds of difficult balls. But he's not always agreeing with me.

"But as a manager I was quite happy with our performance against Lille, because they were a team that are so well-organised and so much control."

Slot, whose Liverpool team are more pragmatic than they were under his attack-minded predecessor Jurgen Klopp, said it was tough to break down well-drilled sides in the Premier League that adopt a defensive approach.

"A low-block team, (Nottingham) Forest, is probably the best in the league if you play these stupid balls, which I call stupid balls, which my father would love to see us playing a bit more," he said.

"That is the risk of (giving) them many more chances and there's a difficult balance between taking the risk and conceding a lot, or having control, maybe not creating as much."

He added: "It's a balance we have to find, and I can understand that it's sometimes difficult for fans as well that come to the stadium to see us winning, but hopefully us scoring a lot of goals in an exciting match.

"But you need two teams for that, and the better we do, the less likely it is that teams come to Anfield and say, 'OK, let's go to a high press and let's press them all over the pitch'."

D.Pan--ThChM