Reaction'Almost a perfect performance' - Arne Slot's verdict on Liverpool 4-1 Ipswich
Arne Slot praised ‘almost a perfect’ performance from his side after Liverpool beat Ipswich Town 4-1 in the Premier League on Saturday.
The Reds consolidated a six-point lead of the division at Anfield as Dominik Szoboszlai, Mohamed Salah and Cody Gakpo (two) scored.
Read a summary of the head coach’s verdict at his post-match press conference…
On it being a ‘comfortable’ afternoon’s work for Liverpool…
Yeah, that’s mostly because we scored an early goal. It’s been a few times now that we played a home game that we conceded a goal in the start of the game, but I think today is the way you want to start the game: we were aggressive, dominant. For 85 minutes they have hardly been in our half I think. It is a counter-attack threat with the wingers they have and with [Liam] Delap but we managed to control that so, so, so well because of the amount of work we have put in. In the end, we are all a bit disappointed with conceding [from] a corner – the first one this season – but for 85 minutes it was almost a perfect performance, against a team that goes to such a low block. That’s not always easy then, but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.
On a moment in the second half when Salah chased back to prevent a counter-attack…
It’s also nice that you come up with it because mostly about Mo it’s about his contract or about his goals, and now it’s about his defensive work-rate. That stood out because it was a moment we could all see, but I think if you look at almost all the times we lost the ball, I saw a reaction of many players like that. That is what I mean with playing against a team with fast wingers, with a good No.9, that goes to such a low block. It’s so difficult to control the counter-attack and the only way to do so is what Mo did in this moment and all the other players did in different moments. That’s why I was pleased with our performance today.
On Szoboszlai and whether he has specifically been asked to take more shots…
I think that’s the development the team is in, because when we played Brentford we had 37 shots, a record in the Premier League for an away team. And then because he is involved in that team, he will probably take a few shots then as well. It is us, the players behind the ball, bringing our attacking players even more in promising positions than we did in the beginning of the season.
Then if you zoom in on Dom, I think at the beginning of the season he would have played that ball to Mo, which most of the time was a very good choice because Mo can definitely score a goal as well. And now he decided to go for the goal himself and scored the goal himself. Nice for him because, in my opinion, he is a bit underestimated. Not by me, but he doesn’t always get the credits for the fact he is very important for this team, because his work-rate is un-be-lievable. He just keeps on running with the highest intensity, and that is so important for a team that wants to compete for something.
On the qualities of Virgil van Dijk, who made his 300th appearance for the club...
If I have to make a list of what Virgil brings to this team then we can just go to the next press conference on Tuesday evening against PSV because he brings so many positives to this team. Bringing the ball out from the back, defending, his composure, he’s definitely a leader. As a manager, I haven’t worked with a lot of players that can say they are a leader, but Virgil is definitely a leader. Not only on the pitch, but also on the training ground. The moment we start the training, he is the loudest one and always leads by example. He is having a fantastic season, but I think he has already seven, eight fantastic seasons as well.
On whether he was concerned for Wataru Endo following the challenge on him by Julio Enciso...
Yes, when the foul was made I was like, that doesn’t look good, and the reactions from the players that were around him showed me. I was like, let’s wait and see, but immediately during the game already he shakes his head one or two times and just goes again. His mentality is unbelievable – and he was fine. It was only a yellow so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic because it was only a yellow.
On whether his father would have been entertained by today’s performance...
What I meant [in Friday’s press conference] – and what I said – was after the Lille game, he said for Liverpool’s standards and maybe even for the standards my teams play, he found it not as exciting as all the ones before. I think three days before, we had 37 shots in an away game in Brentford. I think we’ve set the bar for the standards quite high, even for my father, for him to say maybe the Lille game wasn’t as exciting as all the other games he’s seen from Liverpool and from my former clubs. It would be a bit simple or cheap to say he was the biggest fan of Liverpool before I arrived here because that’s simply not true. He was the biggest fan of Feyenoord because I worked there; and at the moment he is one of the biggest fans of Liverpool because I work here.
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