Interview'I saw different things' – what Arne Slot learned from Liverpool's games against Arsenal and Chelsea
The Reds twice came from behind to claim a 2-2 away draw with Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, thanks to equalisers from Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.
The clash with the Gunners came seven days on from Slot’s team’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea and speaking after the match at Emirates Stadium, the head coach detailed what he has learned from the performances against sides who also currently occupy places in the division’s top five.
Slot told Liverpoolfc.com: “I saw different things in the last two Premier League games we’ve played. I think all the other ones were quite similar but last week we had to defend our lead against a very strong Chelsea and that’s what we did, so that was something that was – especially against such a strong team – one of the first times.
“And today we had to come back two times from going behind and I don’t think we went behind many times at this moment.
“Then going two times behind in a hostile – the fans were quite loud today – environment and to show up like we did in the second half was something I’ve learned today and take as a very positive [thing] from today.”
Read the rest of our post-match interview with Slot below.
On whether the result represents a ‘good point’ for his team…
Yeah, if you look at it simply like this I think I have to agree. If you would have asked me at half-time, ‘Will you get a point out of this game?’ I would have immediately signed for that, if you looked at the first half. Then I take into account that my players are always able to come back strong because they are so fit, we have some very good players on the bench to help us as well, so I wouldn’t have signed for it but after the first half I think Arsenal deserved to be one goal up. In the end of the game I think we deserved this point and then your main thing to remember is the second half and you are like, ‘Was there more in it for us?’ But in the end I think it was a well-deserved point.
On whether the first half was one of the first times he felt Liverpool did not have control of the game and what he changed at half-time…
No, in the last 25 minutes against Chelsea we had control because we defended really well, but today we had to defend a lot and still they threatened us. They didn’t have that many big chances, though, and the second goal they also had to score from a set-piece. But I think if you play in a stadium like this against this quality, against a team that is managed for four or five years by the same manager: they have so many different structures and formations they can come up with and so many different set-ups in build-up. So, they can go with a full-back inside… I cannot even name all of them because that would take too long!
And then after the first half you know what they do so you can adjust your game plan a bit and take a bit more risk and that’s what we did in the second half. But I think the main thing in the second half was that we put more energy into the game, we pressed them earlier, we were more aggressive, also with the ones that came in, and physically I think we made a big point today if you look at how strong we were second half.
On Salah moving up to joint-eighth in the all-time Premier League goalscorers list and the coolness of his finish for Liverpool’s second equaliser…
I just said that both teams didn’t have that many chances so us scoring both twice shows you the quality of the players on the pitch. But coming back to Mo, yeah, it was a great ball from Trent [Alexander-Arnold] as well, a great assist and run from Darwin [Nunez], who hasn’t played that many games and for him to play three in a row and to be able to put so much energy into the game – that probably tells us and me a lot how hard he worked in the previous weeks. And yeah, then there is Mo doing what he always does but I also liked his work-rate today, how much he helped the team and he was a constant threat, although that maybe didn’t lead to chances.