Arne Slot has revealed he wants Liverpool to embrace the dark arts more ahead of their Premier League opener against Bournemouth this evening - while also opening up on 'weird' comments made by referee Chris Kavanagh during Sunday's Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace.
The Reds will take to the field at Anfield this evening hoping to kick on, having cruised to glory last term.
Liverpool have strengthened their squad this summer, bringing in the likes of Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Hugo Ekitike and Milos Kerkez.
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But they were unable to win the Community Shield on Sunday, with Palace securing victory via a dramatic penalty shootout following a 2-2 draw at Wembley.
Arne Slot has revealed he wants Liverpool to embrace the dark arts more ahead of their Premier League opener against Bournemouth this evening
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Slot, speaking ahead of tonight's match with Bournemouth, has admitted he feels his Liverpool players are too honest.
And the Dutchman has accused Kavanagh of making 'weird' comments towards Wirtz after failing to give the Germany international a free-kick.
He said: “If there is one team who, in my opinion, is by far the most honest team, it’s us.
“I sometimes blame them that they never try to make a foul look a little bit more, like Cody against Palace, he got a push in his back but he was far too clean.
"Sometimes, like against Palace, if I talk to the officials about Florian Wirtz, they held him clearly but he was so fair that he didn’t fall over.
“The referee said ‘Yeah, if you didn’t fall, I’m not going to give you a free-kick’ which is a little bit weird.
“A fraction later a Palace player fell down in a moment which wasn’t even a foul and the referee said ‘Oh, you fell down, so it is probably a foul’.
“We had much more ball possession than Palace but we made 13 fouls and they made five fouls and that tells you something about who we are.
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Arne Slot said Chris Kavanagh made 'weird' comments during Sunday's Community Shield clash between Liverpool and Crystal Palace
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“We are a very fair team, I think that’s clear but that’s also a reason why we won the league, so why change if things went well?”
Slot then proceeded to make a mistake.
Ryan Gravenberch is absent for tonight's match on Merseyside, having been dismissed against Palace in the final game of last season.
Slot suggested he was suspended due to diving, which is wrong - because the Netherlands international was actually sent off for a tactical foul instead.
“If there is one team in the league that never dives and never time-delays and those kinds of things then it’s us," he continued.
“And we have a suspension now for a player diving, that’s what he got his first yellow card for.
“For me the best games were the games against Paris Saint-Germain [last season], that was so high intensity, both teams were there to play and not to pretend a foul was more, or to try to time-delay.
“I’m also proud of the fact of who we are and we won the league last season because of the team we were, so let us just stay who we are.”
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Arne Slot was proud of how Liverpool won the Premier League title last season
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Liverpool cruised to a 3-0 win over Bournemouth last season.
Luis Diaz, who has since departed to Bayern Munich, netted a brace with Darwin Nunez also on target.