The coach gave his thoughts following a dramatic win at home against West Ham.
Even as Liverpool went 1-0 up against West Ham at Anfield on Sunday, it unfortunately felt like that wouldn’t be the end of the story. The visiting Hammers equalized late in the second half through a rare own goal by Andy Robertson, and captain Virgil van Dijk took it upon himself to make it right by scoring the winner not long after. Some focus was lost within the second half that allowed West Ham back into the match, but the squad were able to claw their way back to the winning place, ensuring three points towards their title placement.
“It was a big relief. Ali [Becker] made sure that they didn’t score earlier. They had multiple chances to score the 1-1 in the second half and unfortunately they scored one which they didn’t score but we scored,” Head coach Arne Slot told the press following the match.
“To be completely honest, I was expecting two minutes with three or four minutes of added time but all of a sudden seven minutes were added on with no time-wasting at all from both teams, which was a bit of a surprise for me.
“But OK, it helped because we scored a goal just before the extra-time and, of course, that was a relief because to me it felt after West Ham scored and the way the second half went, it was maybe more that you could expect them scoring.
“But our fans and our players thought differently because from the moment they scored the 1-1, we started playing again, we started pressing again, the fans were really loud at that moment of time. Already the chance from Lucho [Diaz], some counter-press moments which led to the corner kick and then we saved a big set-piece for a very important moment because in the modern game of football set-pieces are that important, and that’s what we saw today again as well.”
Liverpool returned to Anfield on Sunday after a full week of rest, buzzing from the news of Mohamed Salah’s new contract, a potential breakthrough on Virgil’s contract, and the return of Alisson Becker to the starting XI after missing the last two matches with a concussion. Even in an emotional match like the one commemorating the Hillsborough disaster, optimism was running high, and Slot was happy to have the experience of those three senior players on the pitch.
“It would not be completely fair to only talk about them but I think as a manager what you’re looking for is always the ones that have achieved already a lot of things in their careers, that they step up in the most important moments of the season,” Slot explained.
“I think it is always in the end of the season [where] moments are getting bigger and bigger, and today all three of them showed up – not only these three but you’re asking me about these three – in big moments. Alisson probably had his best game of the season today and Virgil scored the header that got us three points. And Mo was, again, very important in the first goal and he was really lively in the first half, so I saw the Mo Salah again from most parts of the season.”
Slot even gave credit to West Ham for battling through the second half. The Premier League is a challenge because every team is competitive, no matter where you sit in the table, and West Ham proved that to our Dutch coach in his first season in the league. While they may have rolled over under a different manager earlier in the season, there was some spark in the Hammers on Sunday.
“They [West Ham] also have players and that’s what makes the Premier League so strong this season. I think they are 16 or 17th in the league but I can name you one or two players that could have easily played with us today in terms of quality. That is what the Premier League is about,” said Slot.
“They used them more and more in the second half, these two quality players, and they have more, but I think [Lucas] Paqueta and [Mohammed] Kudus were outstanding today, especially in the second half. Maybe because we were 1-0 up and we conceded one or two chances, it led to a situation where we were a bit too afraid or didn’t press hard enough anymore. It’s them taking more and more risk, bringing a lot of players into the midfield and they still had their threat in these runs with [Aaron] Wan-Bissaka, [Jarrod] Bowen and all the others. It was a bit of both.
“Definitely credit to West Ham as well but you don’t only see this here – I see this every game that I watch. I don’t watch every game of the Premier League but the ones I do, I thought yesterday after 20 minutes that Crystal Palace were in a good place and they could have scored the 3-0 which was fractionally offside and they lost 5-2. So, these are the margins that are in the Premier League, which makes it such a hard league to play in but also why it’s so popular.”
Now the magic number has lowered from 9 to 6 points needed to mathematically ensure the Premier League title, but if Arsenal drops points again next weekend when they face Ipswich Town (who were able to hold Chelsea to a draw this week), Liverpool could lock it down with a win at the King Power Stadium against Leicester next weekend. Of course, though, after having our last title decided by teams losing and winning, it would be nice to make sure we win it at home, right?
“If I have to win it 15 kilometres from here… I don’t care where to win it,” the coach exclaimed.
“We know we still have to win two more games, which I have tried to come back to every single time: it has been on 32 occasions difficult enough for us. First win two and that’s the only thing we should focus on and this week we should try to improve, improve, improve more and more to give ourselves a better chance of winning a game of football next week.
“We face Leicester and everybody can talk, talk, talk but what I saw is that for the first time in 11 games they scored two goals and got a result, so they probably have a bit more confidence going into the game now. We’ve shown in the last 32 games that there have only been two or three wins that were quite comfortable, but the rest of them were very, very, very hard work and that’s our only focus, that’s my only focus: winning a game of football.”
Liverpool next play on Sunday, April 20 against Leicester City. Our 20th title is within our grasp.