Arne Slot praised Liverpool’s “strength in depth” up front after Cody Gakpo scored twice, followed by a Luis Diaz goal, securing a 3-2 win over Brighton & Hove Albion in the Carabao Cup.
The holders advanced to the quarter-finals with the win at the Amex Stadium, where they’ll now face an away tie against Southampton.
Gakpo opened the scoring shortly after halftime with a superb strike and soon added a second before Simon Adingra pulled one back for Brighton.
Diaz looked to have sealed the game late on, but a deflected Tariq Lamptey strike off Jarell Quansah set up a tense finale.
When asked about the rotation on Liverpool’s left side between Díaz and two-goal Gakpo, Slot expressed satisfaction, particularly with the contributions of his fellow Dutchman.
“Cody scored a lot of goals in the second half of last season, so has been a good player for Liverpool for a long time now,” Slot said.
“He continues to be that and that can only be a good thing.
“For me, he is a regular starter. He doesn’t start every game but he starts on a regular basis.
“He is in a tough competition with Luis Diaz, who when he went to the left tonight also scored.
“It’s normal at a club like Liverpool that you have two quality players for many positions.
“If you look at the way Joe Gomez played and Jarell Quansah, who was maybe a bit unlucky with the goal he conceded, the overall performance from the both of them I liked as well.
“They are in competition with Virgil van Dijk and Ibou (Ibrahima Konate).”
On goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros, who made his full debut, Slot added: “Everybody could see how important his saves were.
“The first big chance of the game was for them where he saved a one-v-one, in the second half we all remember some saves he made as well.
“But added to that, how comfortable he was with the ball at his feet, making the right choices, when to go short and when to go long towards the striker, and it helped also for him the quality Jarell Quansah and Joe Gomez brought in the build-up.
“I liked that triangle today a lot in ball possession.”
“I am pleased with how we dealt with it.
“When you come here, you know it’ll be a difficult game because of their style of play and because of the recruitment they’ve had here over the last few years.
“To come away with a win was very pleasing for the long-term. I really liked what I saw from players who haven’t played that much this season yet, they were able to play in a similar style that we usually do and brought quality into the game.
“That makes it even harder for me to make line-ups in the upcoming weeks.”
He concluded: “It’s a bit of everything. In some situations the fixture list, in some situations it’s just the quality of the players we can put on the teamsheet and our playing style helps us.
“It’s only been 14 games but it has been a very good start away from home and also at home.
“We need good form on Saturday as well because we came here knowing Brighton are a good team and they showed that.
“We need to be on top of our game for Saturday again.”
Liverpool will travel to Southampton in the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup following their win over Brighton.
Read more: Why Sporting will not release Ruben Amorim early
Manchester United reach agreement with Sporting for Ruben Amorim
