Arne Slot is confident in his Liverpool team’s resilience after they staged a comeback to defeat Brighton 2-1, reclaiming their position at the top of the Premier League, but wants his team to start games better.
Liverpool struggled in the first half and conceded a goal to Ferdi Kadioglu, while Georginio Rutter and Danny Welbeck missed opportunities to extend their lead before half-time.
However, Liverpool transformed in the second half, with Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah scoring two goals within three minutes, completely changing the game’s dynamics.
On a day when both Manchester City and Arsenal suffered losses, Liverpool returned to the top of the table, leading City by two points. However, Slot was more focused on his own team’s performance, referencing this match and last week’s recovery in a 2-2 draw against the Gunners.
“It’s not because they lost, but what I do like is last week we were two times one goal behind against Arsenal, 1-0 and 2-1, and two times we were able to fight back,” he stated.
“In this game we were 1-0 down at half-time I think we deserved to be and then to come back so strongly against a quality team, to come back the way that we did gives me a lot of confidence.
“But I also said to the players the 45 minutes of football we played in the first half, that will punish you somewhere. We need to show up from the start.”
Slot downplayed the notion of a fiery half-time speech sparking Liverpool’s revival, attributing their turnaround to the players’ own merit.
“First of all credit to Brighton for the way they showed up here with composure, not afraid to play out from the back really well, and with a lot of energy without the ball,” he praised.
“We didn’t show up at all in every part of the game, maybe except for set-pieces. Against a good team like Brighton it is not enough to run once, twice, three times, you have to keep on running.
“We changed a bit of tactics but that was nothing to do with us coming out stronger in the second half. It all had to do with the players, they showed a different attitude and intensity.
“I said a few things but I wasn’t screaming or fuming. It’s just making sure the players understand this was not enough and I think they felt themselves that way.”
Brighton’s manager Fabian Hurzeler, despite witnessing some splendid football from his side, especially in the first half, experienced deja vu following a squandered lead against Wolves the previous week.
“In the end football is always a game of results and we need results for the process,” Hurzeler remarked. “We have to understand how to get results.
“The performance was good enough to win this game easily, especially in the first half, we had a lot of moments where we should have scored a second or even a third goal and then the game is completely different.
“But then in the second half we had two or three moments where we weren’t precise enough and we lost 50-50 duels and we got a bit affected by the atmosphere.
“These things are important experiences to learn from to get the results you deserve in the end. There is the balance, the performance is good but in the end we are a club with ambitions and we need to get results out of these games.”
