Arne Slot has revealed that he ignored the recommendations of his fitness team regarding Florian Wirtz as the Liverpool star shone in a 2-0 win over West Ham. The German midfielder had been sidelined for the previous two matches following an injury sustained during the international break.
However, he was reinstated to the starting XI at the London Stadium as strikes from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo secured a crucial three points for the Premier League champions. Wirtz delivered what was arguably his finest performance in England's top flight since his £116m summer transfer from Bayer Leverkusen, operating in an attacking midfield position with support from Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister in the middle of the pitch.
Slot was hesitant to lavish excessive praise on Wirtz but expressed satisfaction with his output, admitting he disregarded his performance staff's suggestions that a substitution was required before the eventual 75th-minute change for Curtis Jones.
"The team played a very good game," the Liverpool boss said. "Recently I've been asked a lot about individuals when maybe they've played a game not of their usual standards and I've pointed out the team every single time.
"After a very positive performance from Florian, I can acknowledge that but I also want to emphasise the team performance was much better.
"We tried to create an extra midfielder and he was very important for us to find that extra midfielder every time.
"He was good when he made a dribble, he was good with his one-touch passes, he played one ball to Cody, which then doesn't lead to a shot, but we had many of those moments and he was part of many of them.
"Performance staff were constantly telling me 'he needs to go out' because he'd be out for one-and-a-half weeks and had only trained once, so to a certain extent it was maybe a bit of a risk to keep him in the team, but some situations ask for an exception, and today was one of them."
The Reds broke the deadlock when Isak coolly slotted home his first league strike for the club since his £125m switch from Newcastle on transfer deadline day.
And Slot added: "That is also a bit unfair to him (to say the goal was a relief). Normally, as a No.9, in general, he plays more minutes than I have played Alex now because of the obvious reasons.
"Even today, I had to take him off after 68 minutes. He has played a lot of games, but in terms of minutes, not so much.
"It's very important for us as a team that we went 1-0 and important for him because it was his third chance of this game and I don't think there was much more than 10 minutes left in him.
"To score just before you come off is important for us and him."