It’s been a tough 24 hours for Arne Slot following his side’s Carabao Cup first leg defeat at Tottenham last night. The visitors will have to overturn a 1-0 deficit at Anfield next month, courtesy of Lucas Bergvall’s controversial late winner.
The Swede swept home just moments after appearing lucky to escape a second yellow card after taking down Kostas Tsimikas, leaving Slot incensed.
And to make matters worse, the Dutchman was forced to cancel training today (Thursday) after the team’s flight home was disrupted by severe weather
The squad were due to land at the John Lennon Airport in Liverpool, having departed from London Stansted immediately after their defeat. However, according to The Times, freezing fog derailed those plans and instead, the plan landed in Birmingham.
Players, coaches, and staff members were then said to have been taken back to Merseyside via a coach and a number of cars. It meant that the squad weren’t back home until the early hours of the morning, much later than planned.
As a result, Slot scrapped plans for a session on Thursday. It leaves Slot with just one day now to prepare for Saturday’s FA Cup tie at home to League Two side Accrington Stanley.
It’s unlikely that any players who started at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will be in the home XI the lunchtime kick-off. Amid a frenzied run of games, Liverpool will follow the tie with a trip to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday, and another defeat will see their lead at the top of the Premier League cut to three points.
And Slot can also take solace that it’s not just his team who have had their build-up to the weekend disrupted. Heavy snow and ice in the area has also prevented Accrington from training properly this week, with John Doolan’s squad forced to use an indoor dome in Blackburn.
Last weekend, Liverpool City Council waited until 11am on Sunday morning to confirm that the club’s home game with Manchester United could go ahead. Heavy snow overnight had prompted fears of disruption for fans travelling to Anfield, while a number of lower league games over the weekend were postponed.
Following the Tottenham loss, Slot played down fears his side were stuttering, having been below par in the 2-2 draw with United. “I did feel Spurs started the game better than us but after that, in my opinion, we had most of the game control.
“We played most of the game in their half, had much more ball possession. There’s many good things to take for me, more than the United game, but the result was not as good as against United.”