Slot praises Salah return on important night for both

Arne Slot recalls Marseille well in retrospect. His Feyenoord team won the Europa Conference League final in 2022, and it was there.

He was questioned about those memories ahead of this week’s game in the Stade Velodrome. Additionally, he was questioned about Xabi Alonso’s connections to the job at Liverpool in an odd and rude manner.

Liverpool’s manager, who added Marseille to Eintracht Frankfurt and Inter Milan as the teams they have defeated on their travels this season, slammed any uncertainty surrounding his future.

Although their 13 matches (W7 D6) in all competitions have been uninspiring, this is the longest streak of any team from Europe’s big five leagues. For that, credit must be due in its own right. In November, Liverpool last lost a game.

It was crucial for Slot because Mohamed Salah had won the first game for Liverpool since November 4, when they defeated Real Madrid in the Champions League. After Salah’s interview at Leeds, it appears like a line has been drawn, and both the player and the manager can now move on toward the improvement of the football team.

Both need one another in reality. Slot stated before the game that he was trying to do something different when I didn’t play him. All the ball possession we have failed to score. Mo Salah is the only player who has ever scored goals in Liverpool’s history.

Even though Salah actually should have scored from the spot when he fired wide in the second half on a 46 Champions League goal for Liverpool, it was a night that left Slot speechless and may well give him some food for thought in the coming weeks.

Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez provided the width down the flanks with Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai remaining behind Hugo Ekitike and Salah.

In that regard, Salah and the other summer signings excelled because of Frimpong’s energy, which allowed him to concentrate on his attacking duties. Despite that, the Egyptian did withdraw a shift.

On Match of the Day, Steven Warnock praised Salah for “sitting nicely into Liverpool’s shape.” I believe Slot will use him like this again because “you need continuity and consistency to get the best out of him.” That defensive responsibility of having to track back as far as he is wide is removed.

When he isn’t running as much, it makes him more youthful and dangerous. He almost had the impression that he was constantly looking for opportunities while watching his defender every chance, and he got two excellent chances to do better tonight.

The key is still to deal with a low block for Slot and Liverpool. Even if Steven Gerrard, the former team’s captain, resisted that Slot stop talking about it.

“I’m very happy for him,” he said. When under that pressure, Gerrard said, “It can’t be easy.” His tactics worked perfectly tonight. He merits a lot of praise and acclaim. He needs to stop talking about low blocks. Since I started playing against Liverpool, low blocks have been occurring. That is exactly how it is.

Slot told TNT Sports, “I am aware of why we’re not consistent, and that’s primarily when a game is open,” Slot continued. “It’s completely different from playing against a low block. When both teams want to press and play out from the back, “you can’t compare that to tonight’s game.” We struggle with low blocks if we’re inconsistent.

Although it’s unlikely to be possible for Bournemouth to attempt a low block on Saturday, Andoni Iraola might choose to take a chance on Liverpool’s recent struggles.