Arne Slot believes the pressure is growing after Liverpool's alarming losing run, he said on Thursday.
The defending Premier League champion has lost nine of its last 12 games in all competitions. The 4-1 defeat to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday was a third in succession when Liverpool has lost by three goals or more.
While Slot said after the match that he felt safe in his position, he also accepts the run brings extra heat.
“There’s a lot of pressure if you work or play at a top club and even more so if you start losing more games than this club, or these players or this manager, is used to. So then there’s always pressure,” said the Liverpool coach.
“But there was a lot of pressure last season as well for us to win the league and now it’s a different kind of pressure because we’ve lost so many games.”
Liverpool's title defense is unravelling after six losses in its last seven league games.
It is 12th in the standings, 11 points behind first-place Arsenal.
Slot was near faultless in his first season at Anfield, leading the club to a record-equaling 20th league crown by a 10-point margin over runner-up Arsenal. Stepping into one of the most daunting jobs in soccer, he made light of succeeding Liverpool great Jurgen Klopp and was widely expected to retain the title.
But his team has looked a shadow of the one that was crowned champion in May, despite spending around $500 million (377 million pounds) in the offseason on star players like Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz.
Liverpool travels to West Ham on Sunday in danger of being cut further adrift in the title race.
“We fight on and we try to improve. That’s what we all try,” Slot said. “In the end it’s about doing what this club is about, keep fighting and no matter how difficult it is, we have to fight together.”
The goalkeeper Alisson is back in training for Liverpool after missing the PSV game due to illness and Wirtz could train ahead of the West Ham game after a muscle issue.
Slot said the back problem that forced Hugo Ekitike off against PSV was not expected to be a “big issue.”
James Robson is at https://x.com/jamesalanrobson
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Liverpool's manager Arne Slot applauds after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Liverpool and PSV in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Liverpool's manager Arne Slot waits for the start of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Liverpool and PSV in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
Liverpool's manager Arne Slot leaves the pitch after the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Liverpool and PSV in Liverpool, England, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Federal officials on Thursday gave final approval for the Dakota Access oil pipeline to continue operating its contentious Missouri River crossing, an outcome that comes nearly a decade after boisterous protests against the project on the North Dakota prairie.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to grant the key easement means the pipeline will keep operating but with added conditions for detecting leaks and monitoring groundwater, among others. The announcement brings an end to a drawn-out legal and regulatory saga stemming from the protests in 2016 and 2017, though further litigation over the pipeline is likely.
The $3.8 billion, multistate pipeline has been transporting oil since June 2017 from North Dakota’s Bakken oil field to a terminal in Illinois. The line carries about 4% of U.S. daily oil production, or roughly 540,000 barrels per day,
The Corps is “decisively putting years of delays to rest and moving out to safely execute this crossing beneath Lake Oahe," Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle said in a statement.
The pipeline crosses the river upstream from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation, which straddles the Dakotas. The tribe has long opposed the pipeline, fearing a spill and contamination of its water supply. In 2016 and 2017, thousands of people camped and protested for months near the river crossing.
The protests resulted in hundreds of arrests and related criminal cases and lawsuits, some of them still ongoing, including litigation that threatens the future of the environmental group Greenpeace.
In December, the Corps released its final environmental impact statement nearly six years after a federal judge ordered a more rigorous review of the pipeline's crossing. In that document, the Corps endorsed the option to grant the easement for the crossing and keep the pipeline operating with modifications.
Those measures include enhanced leak detection and monitoring systems, expanded groundwater and surface water monitoring and third-party expert evaluation of the leak and detection systems, among others, the Corps said. The conditions also include water supply contingency planning and other studies coordinated with affected tribes.
The Corps had weighed several options, including removing or abandoning the pipeline's river crossing or even rerouting it north. The agency said its decision “best balances public safety, protection of environmental resources, and leak detection and response considerations while meeting the project’s purpose and need.”
Pipeline developer Energy Transfer hailed the decision, saying the pipeline has been safely operating for nearly 10 years and is critical to the country’s energy infrastructure.
“We want to thank the Corps for the tremendous amount of time and effort put in by so many to bring this matter to a thoughtful close,” said Vicki Granado, a company spokesperson.
The Associated Press sent text messages and emails to media representatives for the tribe and left a voicemail at the tribe's headquarters. They didn't immediately respond Thursday.
North Dakota Republican Gov. Kelly Armstrong, Interior Secretary and former North Dakota governor Doug Burgum and U.S. Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer each welcomed the decision to ensure the pipeline continues operating.
The Corps' announcement came as officials and oil industry leaders were gathered for a trade conference in Bismarck.
Energy Transfer and Enbridge are in early stages of a project to move about 250,000 daily barrels of light Canadian crude oil through the Dakota Access Pipeline by using another pipeline and building a 56-mile connecting line, spokespersons for the companies said. Enbridge will decide sometime in mid-2026 whether to move ahead.
FILE - A sign for the Dakota Access Pipeline is seen north of Cannonball, N.D. and the Standing Rock Reservation on May 20, 2021. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown, File)
