Dominik Szoboszlai: Liverpool lacked ‘fighting spirit’ in Man City rout

Dominik Szoboszlai said Liverpool lacked “fighting spirit” in their 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup and said it is “hard to find the words” to sum up his team’s poor performance.

Arne Slot’s side started well at the Etihad but conceded four goals in the space of 20 minutes either side of halftime. It is not the first time this season the Reds have wilted in the face of adversity, having won just two of the 19 games in which they have fallen behind.

It was the heaviest defeat of Arne Slot’s time in charge and Liverpool’s largest margin of defeat since October 2020.

“When you do something and there is no result for it, it makes no sense,” Szoboszlai told TNT Sports.

“We had chances and missed them; we conceded an easy penalty. We lose 4-0. We cannot concede as much as we concede. Nothing else to say.

“It’s hard to win here. After 1-0 down you still believe. At 2-0 down, it’s our own fault to come in at half-time conceding in the last minute another goal. At 2-0 the chances are lower and lower. You come out and want to show we are able to come back and you concede a third one, from then on there is no more chance to come back.

“The fighting spirit wasn’t there enough, the mentality wasn’t there enough. None of us were there to be honest as much as we could. It’s a hard time but we have to stick together. On Wednesday there is another chance but we have to get in our head this is not the season we would like to end.”

Asked why Liverpool were lacking the necessary fight to challenge City, Szoboszlai said: “That’s a good question. I don’t know. It’s hard to find words to be honest. We wanted this one so much. You lose 4-0 at City and it’s not the best.

“We have to forget as much as we can and as soon as we can and just keep on fighting all the time. I always say when we do it and we are winning, when we don’t do it we are losing. You have to fight, work hard, be there for each other and that’s what we are missing sometimes.”

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Szoboszlai’s comments were later put to Slot.

“I should ask him what he means and what period of time,” Slot said. “If he felt it was the whole game, I did not feel this until the moment they scored [to make it] 1-0.

“In that 10, 15 minutes of time [at the start of the second half],” he added, “I missed the fighting spirit … the willingness to win your duel, to be there first, to make it difficult for either a pass or a cross or a finish. That is something we definitely have to do better on Wednesday [against PSG].”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.