ReactionDominik Szoboszlai: Happy with three points - but things to learn from

The Reds got the new Premier League campaign up and running with a 2-0 win at Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon.

Arne Slot’s side were made to work for their victory, with a goalless first half followed by a second period in which the visitors steadily turned the screw.

Diogo Jota broke the deadlock on the hour mark and Mohamed Salah quickly doubled the lead with a goal that added yet another individual record to his catalogue.

Post-match, Szoboszlai reflected on how the opening day played out, his role in the system under Slot, and more.

Read the chat with Liverpoolfc.com below…

On his assessment of the season opener…

Yeah, we are happy about the three points. What we learned about it [is that] we should be ready from the first minute. But also, after we came out in the second half we showed a good reaction, scored an early goal with Jots and then one more with Mo. So, we are happy to take the three points but also we have to learn some stuff.

• Read our match report from Portman Road

On what changed between the two halves, with Liverpool exerting more control after the break…

It’s hard, we would like always to be intense and to have the ball and to play forward and let them run, but it’s not always working. So, they’re the things we have to work on. In the second half I think we mostly controlled the game, we had chances and we were intense, we won the balls. That’s the thing we have to do from the beginning.

On what the head coach has asked of him in his midfield role…

Well, we played differently a little bit because we played with one No.6 and two No.8s, with one of the No.8s dropping as a No.6. Now we played with one No.6, one No.8 and one No.10, and I had the role of the No.10. But still sometimes I can drop, sometimes I can stay. It’s just different. I think I have more offensive work with the ball but without the ball I still have to do my stuff anyway, so the same as last season.

On it being pleasing to win on the opening day while the squad is still adapting…

Of course. We had quite a long pre-season but not all of the guys were there, so I think we need time until we come together and we know each other in this system as well. Last year we showed that we know each other but now it is quite a little bit different system and also style of playing football. But I think with time we’re going to get to know each other.

• Full transcript: Arne Slot's post-Ipswich press conference