Liverpool FC head coach Arne Slot was in an effusive mood after their 4-0 win against Galatasaray, sealing their place in the UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals, where they will face Paris Saint-Germain.
In the game, Mohamed Salah scored his 50th Champions League goal, becoming the first African player to hit that milestone.
Slot was generous in
his praise of the Egyptian King in his post-game comments:
“It says a lot about him that after missing a penalty just before half-time [to score that goal]. That can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliment to the team for how we came out in the second half because we’ve had a lot of setbacks this season, we’ve had a lot of first or second halves where we’ve created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we’ve performed, so not scoring. Then, Mo and the team came out in the second half the way they did. He assisted first to Hugo, a great assist, and then scored a trademark goal, which he scored many of in this stadium and for this club, coming inside and finding the top corner. That tells you about the mental strength of him, but definitely also of the team because adversity is something we can talk about when it comes to this season.”
He also revealed that Salah had to come off with a suspected injury:
“Injury-wise, he was asking for a substitution, not because he thought he had scored enough but that he felt something, so let’s see where he is for the weekend and afterwards.”
Slot was asked if using Mo in a more narrow position closer to the goal was the solution and the way to go moving forward:
“The thinking was not only about Mo, the thinking is about a lot of things. You always try to prepare your team in a way that can help them during the game. But I think tonight is not about tactics, it’s mainly about the work they’ve put in, the support they got from the fans. And then, of course, tactics can help. But this work-rate, this intensity, this combination of play is always more important than tactics. But unfortunately we’ve played this tactic before – Frankfurt away, Inter Milan away and some other games – but usually this season then we’ve got a player injured, we couldn’t do it again because then we miss out on a certain type in a certain position.”
So, we’ve used this tactic before but unfortunately even tonight Joe Gomez couldn’t play, not really helpful, of course, when when I had to take Jeremie Frimpong off but Curtis [Jones] again did a great job. This has been our season that every time when we think we find the system or we think we find the right style of play then someone gets injured and then we don’t have the similar fit, so we have to adapt and change again. But that’s part of being a manager, so you can’t complain about that.“
Liverpool will play Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday April 8, with the second leg at Anfield set for Tuesday April 14.
