Liverpool boss Arne Slot. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
Liverpool boss Arne Slot. (Photo by Ben STANSALL / AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
Liverpool return to domestic action against Brighton and the standard has been set.
Come 12.30pm on Saturday on the south coast, the emphatic Champions League win over Galatasaray will be irrelevant.
The pressure will be back on Arne Slot to deliver the sort of performance that suggests that he should be the man to take Liverpool forward into next season and that he is capable of delivering the type of football that can excite fans. Winning is always more important, but being boring to watch doesn’t help a manager’s cause when results don’t go their way.
Liverpool have no room for error
Speaking on The Athletic’s Walk On podcast, journalist Tony Evans was quick to remind fans that there isn’t any room for error in the Premier League now and that more performances like the one on Wednesday night are essential: “Yeah. Well, the bottom line is, okay, well, what I'll say is, the players and the fans, the manager, they now know that it's the business end of the season. So they can't really afford any slip ups.
“What happened last night and given what potentially is on offer for them in the Champions League, if they manage to get it right, should focus their minds surely. It should say, we need to be right on it now. There's no, you know, we've got to be aggressive, we've got to be intense. So I actually think last night, they did put a lot into the game, but it was the sort of game where they won quite easily and it should loosen them up and make them move a bit freer as well, you know, in the game on Saturday. It wasn't an exhausting game for them last night. They did a lot of running.
“They should come out of that game feeling really good, about themselves. Hopefully, we see a performance where they, you know, they bounce into the game on Saturday. I'd like to see them start a bit faster with a bit of purpose.”
How Liverpool can set the tempo
There was a swagger about how Liverpool played against the Turks with both full-backs dominating their respective flanks and the duo of Dominic Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz dictating play in the middle of the park, however, there is something else that Evan’s would like to see early doors against Brighton: “You know, I'd like to see Virgil van Dijk getting the ball in the first couple of minutes and spraying one of those passes that he always used to do. To get everybody confident thinking, he's up for it today, he knows what's going to happen. They've got to start like that.
And then as I say, see where it takes them rather than, I just got the feeling, it's like, let's feel our way into the game. Let's not make any mistakes early on. Let's see, you know, let's be a bit impatient and let's try and get a grip of the game.”
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