Arne Slot: Liverpool's defeat to Brighton 'hurts a lot' - ESPN

BRIGHTON, England — Arne Slot has said Liverpool's 2-1 defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion «hurts a lot» and admitted his team's form this season has not been good enough.

Danny Welbeck struck twice at the Amex to secure all three points for the hosts, dealing Liverpool a huge blow in the race for Champions League qualification.

«Of course now looking at the league table, this loss hurts a lot and it should hurt us a lot,» Slot said. «But the main problem is that we are in this position because we dropped a point at Wolves in the last minute from a deflected shot. That [Tottenham] goal last week in the 90th minute is, I would say, even a bigger problem than losing away at Brighton.»

Liverpool were without both Mohamed Salah and Alisson Becker for their trip to the south coast, while Hugo Ekitike was substituted with an injury early in the first half.

Asked whether he expects outsiders to have sympathy with his team considering the £450million ($602m) they spent in last summer's transfer window, Slot said: «No, I have complete sympathy with that for all the people who are saying this because no one in England is used to the fact that there are also clubs that are selling players.

»So usually in England when a club is buying £450 million like we did, that's adding that to the already great team you are having.

«But this club has a different model and no one wants to see that and no one wants to understand this, that I can also understand because fans of other teams and certain pundits don't want to tell you that we sold for £300million ($401m).

»Then, the £150 million ($201m) player is never available. That's already one thing, and Giovanni Leoni has never been available because of his injury. That's already the second thing,