- Southampton took a shock advantage in Anfield after a monotonous Liverpool exhibition in the first half
- Goals of Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez completed the Liverpool’s turnaround
- Listen now: it’s all starting! Is Alisson the best goalkeeper of the Premier League?
Arne Slot admitted that she was forced to give her Liverpool players a severe narration at the break, while Premier League leaders hesitated against the background of the Southampton rock before a fantastic twist in the second half.
Darwin Nunez began the return after Will Smallbone’s attack to the saints, before Mohamed Salah marked two penalties to bring his count to 32 to the season.
Liverpool seemed tired after their exercise by defeating Paris Saint-Germain midweek and Slot said he was less than satisfied in the first 45 minutes, insisting that he had no choice but to make three replacements in the break.
“I didn’t give them compliments at the break, I can tell you,” said Slot, who was watching the stands in the final game of his touch ban.
“Maybe I could say it was because I was sitting there instead of the line.” When you watch a game there, you always feel that “oh, I can play in this game,” but when you are at stake, there is more rhythm.
-I think it was not wrong if it said the interval that the energy levels were far, very, very low. This had to change and that is why we made three substitutions, as well as the energy to bring quality.
Nine in 10 times, when you take three, the other eight are like, something else should happen. That was the only thing I could create to create something different for the second half.
Arne Slot was furious with the intensity of his players in a monotonous presentation in the first half in Anfield
Liverpool was behind the relegation of Southampton, thanks to defensive confusion
It worked and Liverpool ended the 16 points at a distance from Arsenal, which travels to Manchester United today/on Sunday.
The Reds are not in action in the League now until April 2, but face Paris Saint-Germain in Anfield on Tuesday before the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle next Sunday.
Slot described this game as the first of the three ‘finals’ in a week and he added:’ In the next two finals, I hope we play better than the first.
“When I look at the game against PSG, we have to accelerate in intensity and, compared to the game today, we need to go five, six, seven steps in terms of intensity if we want to have any chance to reach the next round.”
‘Something had to change in the break. So I took some players, brought players who brought a lot of energy to us. If you have energy and our quality, this can lead to goals.
Liverpool will need to shoot again for 90 full minutes when they host PSG in its Champions League in the last second stage next week, defending the miraculous advantage 1-0 that they took in the French capital.
Slot was asked if he thought the slow start of his players was playing with an eye on Tuesday’s visit – but the Dutch said he wasn’t sure.
“I will never know why I can’t look in my players’ heads,” he added. “But I thought our game in Paris should have been a good warning to us that we need to climb a level to be ready for Paris Saint-Germain (second hand).
Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez led to the recovery of the second half for the embarrassment of the spare slot
Salah later scored two penalties and now has 32 goals in 41 games of Liverpool this season
“Maybe the only thing that is good is so slow in the first half that they can never tell me they were tired after the first half.”
“Maybe they saved their legs, which is necessary because the intensity of Paris Saint-Germain is crazy. We have to not only move forward, not two, but maybe three or four to Tuesday.
