Arne Slot: “Its a good win but if you go to Old Trafford there will be difficult moments”
Arne Slot says he is happy with the victory at Old Trafford but warned there's still a lot to prove.
Arne Slot ‘s dream starts to life as head coach of Liverpool continued on Sunday when they beat Manchester United by 3-0 at Old Trafford in the Premier League, but admitted he told his players “There will be difficult moments.”
A first-half brace from Luiz Diaz and an inevitable Mohamed Salah goal in the second saw Arne Slot’s first visit to Manchester United as Liverpool boss ended in a resounding victory. And it’s fair to assume his side could have scored a few more.
Mohamed Salah has turned Old Trafford into a personal hunting ground, having been involved in 15 goals now at the home of their bitterest rivals. The Egyptian assisted Luis Diaz twice in the first half before slotting home with the famous left foot 11 minutes after the break.
Following the full-time whistle, a delighted but calm Arne Slot told Sky Sports that his side still has a long way to go.
“We had to fight through the first 10 minutes, but if you go to Old Trafford you know there will be difficult moments, but we fought ourselves through that, and one of the main things I liked is that after scoring a great goal which was disallowed, we just kept on playing the way we did before.”
“And in the end some nice goals, but we needed Alisson in the second half to make two important saves, and it was a deserved win.
Arne Slot was quizzed on whether his counter-press game plan changed ahead of this game, knowing the magnitude of the fixture. The Dutchman replied “There was no specific game plan concerning build-up from the back. We always wanted to press the opponent high – that’s what Jurgen [Klopp] did, that’s what we try to continue.”
“The game plan was more when we had the ball normally, in the last two games Dominik Szoboszlai played more from the right, today we played him from the left, but without the ball we always try to press as high as we can, and we scored I think a few goals from high press.”
“Their [Man United] full backs are really high and Casemiro comes in between the center backs, so if you pick the ball and you can keep Lucho [Diaz] and Mo Salah high then you’re constatntly going to be in 1-v-1 situations, and then you need midfielders that can run, and we had three of them today that kept on running and if they arrive in a duel, they’re aggressive enough to win it so that was one of the main things why we could win today.”
Arne Slot became the first Liverpool coach since Bob Paisley in 1975 to win his first three league games in charge. But he insisted he was not getting carried away and suggested it was too soon in his new job to start thinking about records. He shed light on his half-time talk about reminding the players of what they were doing well and what to expect after the break.
“We said they are going to press differently so be prepared for that, so we tried to find out what they were trying to do -but also I showed them two, three moments where in one situation led to a chance for Mazraoui where Lucho was not tracking back as he should, and I came back to the moment where Trent played a sloppy pass towards Alisson. Those moments you know better than me can change the game here at Old Trafford, so we need to be focus and concentrate every second if you want to win here.”
“It’s a good win, but if the players come back from the international team break, there are so many games have to be played in short period of time so it’s a good start, of course, but I don’t think the supporters will listen to me [if I asked them not to get too carried away], but it’s normal if you win a game like this, you get 9 points and win a big game at Old Trafford and the fans are excited.”
“But for us there’s still a lot to prove, starting every player double program with the Champions league game and then three days later a league game, then we have to be ready, and two years ago was the last time Liverpool played in the Champions League and we all know what was the end result of that season. So for us a lot to prove in the Champions League and then on the weekends,” he finished.
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