Arne Slot was delighted with Liverpool's performance in their 1-0 Premier League victory at Sunderland but he would have liked the final scoreline to have been more emphatic
Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot gestures instructions to the players from the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Sunderland and Liverpool at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland in north east England on February 11, 2026. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot gestures instructions to the players from the touchline during the English Premier League football match between Sunderland and Liverpool at The Stadium of Light in Sunderland in north east England on February 11, 2026. (Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
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Arne Slot gestures from the touchline during the Premier League match between Sunderland and Liverpool at the Stadium of Light(Image: ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP via Getty Images)
Arne Slot has challenged his Liverpool team to be more ruthless despite watching them reignite their challenge for Champions League qualification. Virgil van Dijk scored the only goal shortly after the hour as the Reds secured a deserved 1-0 Premier League win at Sunderland on Wednesday evening.
The result moved Liverpool to within three points of the top four and only two points off fifth after Manchester United and Chelsea were held to draws the previous night.
And while Slot was impressed with the manner in which his team responded to Sunday’s gut-wrenching 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester City, he wants to see the Reds start turning dominance into more goals.
“We’ve had so many setbacks and disappointments where we didn’t get what we deserved but the players showed up again three days later and performed,” said the Liverpool boss.
“I saw a very good performance from my team throughout the 90 minutes.
“We have shown that response so many times this season. Now it’s about the consistency and results. It’s not a coincidence when we win our games because we are usually the better team on the pitch. It’s more surprising to see we didn’t have more wins.
“But today you could also see why. If you create so many chances and have three-v-two situations, it should – and will – lead to us scoring much more goals.
“If we want to make it more simple for ourselves it would be nice if we could score more goals.”
Both Hugo Ekitike and Mohamed Salah missed good openings in the second half while man-of-the-match Florian Wirtz struck the woodwork before the break and later had a goalbound effort blocked.
And of Wirtz, Slot said: “Not for the first time he was really good. But recently when he was really good he was also involved in goals and assists and today he was very close and maybe should have been on the scoresheet with the amount of quality he has.
“But it’s good to see not only him but also other players developing so well, playing another good game of football where we had such a disappointment against City, when we played so well second half and deserved so much more than we got.”
Of the game, Slot added: “It didn’t feel to me at all like a struggle as I thought we played really, really, really well again.
“Sunderland have a difficult playing style to play against, a lot of long balls to defend and a lot of balls in the channel, and I thought we did that really well and controlled the second ball really good.
“From that second ball we played some very good football. I’m getting used to more and more now us missing a lot of chances, which we did again.
“The big exception compared to all the other games against promoted teams or where we are the better team, we weren’t able to score from a set-piece and usually concede one. But we did scored and that’s the difference between all the games we dropped points.”