Arne Slot has said anyone concerned about Liverpool next season is “underestimating what a window can do” after they were beaten emphatically 4-2 at Aston Villa. 

It was Liverpool’s 19th defeat of the season in all competitions and yet another damaging result for Slot, whose side will have to wait to seal Champions League qualification.

Liverpool’s decline this season has been alarming after their Premier League title triumph a year ago and there is no sign of Slot being able to stop the rot at the moment. 

But the Liverpool boss is confident that the upcoming transfer window can be transformative for Liverpool’s prospects next season.

“I can understand at this point of time that they don’t have a lot of confidence or a feeling that things can be much better next season,” Slot said on Friday in his post-match press conference.

“But I think then they are underestimating what a window can do, what a new start can do. 

“We know quite well what [we need] to improve.”

Liverpool are without a number of key players because of injury, including summer signings Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, who joined for a combined fee of around £200m. 

Slot will be hoping the upcoming window brings more immediate results than the nearly £500m outlay from last summer. 

The Liverpool boss puts that down to the absences and the time it has taken the new signings to adapt to playing in the Premier League.

“One of the things we have to improve is also very obvious and I would prefer not to talk about it here, but you’re actually almost forcing me to,” Slot said after the game.

“If you miss nine players that can start a game of football and almost all of them are starters, then you add what you can improve in a window and add that to players that are playing for the second season in the Premier League.

“We saw that the adaptation to the Premier League for a few of them took some time, but that’s now better and better. That will automatically lead to much more because even today – that’s my opinion, no one has to agree with me – for large parts of the game, we were close to a result.

“But then when you are the better team, you need to generate more chances, and if you have the chances, you need to score them and we cannot concede as many set-pieces as we’ve conceded this season.

“So I don’t think the difference is so big. Doing the right thing in a few situations can already have a massive upward possibility.”