ReactionArne Slot press conference: Liverpool 1-0 Arsenal, Szoboszlai's 'magic' and season so far
Arne Slot hailed his team’s mentality and the decisive ‘moment of magic’ from Dominik Szoboszlai after Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield.
A wonderful free-kick by Szoboszlai, scored in the 83rd minute, settled Sunday’s meeting between last season’s top two in the Premier League.
After a closely fought first half, the champions were the contest’s dominant force after the break and were good value for a victory that leaves them as the only side in the division with a 100 per cent winning record going into the September international break.
During his post-match press conference, Slot said: “We have nine points out of games where last season we picked up five points. So, that’s only positive but I do know and understand that we can do better.”
Read a summary from the head coach’s media briefing below.
On whether it was a case of his team finding a way to win a tight game for the third time this season…
Yeah. If we play this game 10 times more in the same fashion then I think it’s eight times a draw, we win it one time and Arsenal wins it one time because it was an uneventful game, which is something sometimes positive as well because both teams were really good in rest defence and in defending. But, I think normally Arsenal and us are able to create more chances during a game, but it tells you also something about the structure and the amount of discipline both teams have without the ball. Then you need a moment of magic, which we got from Dominik, and that resulted in us winning a game that, like I just said, normally would have ended in a draw. But I don’t agree with you on the first game, I think we totally deserved to win the Bournemouth game, by the way.
On Szoboszlai’s value to the team and his superb performances as a right-back in the last two games…
I don’t think he changed at all in the last few games compared to what he did last season. He has always been a player that, I think, understands what a Liverpool player should look like: if you wear this shirt you should give everything, no matter in what position you play. As a midfielder he is always the first one to track back, to press high and today I don’t think he did anything wrong. An unbelievable game from him in a position he probably played only two or three times in his life. So, that tells you a lot about the mentality he has. But he played really well, as he played so many times so well as an attacking midfielder also.
On the collective performance of Liverpool’s defence in keeping a clean sheet…
If you play in a Liverpool shirt you get a lot of credit, mainly, and sometimes you maybe get a little bit of criticism, which is not a problem at all. Today they were outstanding. You have to be outstanding if you play Arsenal because of all the attacking threat that they have. I think they thought, ‘Wow, we did a great job,’ and then they look at the line and see [Eberechi] Eze and [Martin] Odegaard coming in! But again they did well also against them. So, a very good game. I think Virgil [van Dijk] was already unbelievable against Newcastle and he and the others were very good again today as well.
On what he is happy about from his team in the early weeks of the season and what still needs to improve…
Mentality. Having to bring quite a lot of new players in because quite a few left and then if you have to start the season against Bournemouth – who were last season already really good and this season again are already on six points – playing Newcastle away, which is for every single team in the league one of the most difficult away games, and then playing Arsenal at home, which is definitely one of the three or four most difficult games of the season. Then already doing what we are doing – we are not perfect and we were not perfect last season, by the way, as well.
But still what you can see is a great mentality and everybody wants to work so hard to get a result over the line and then you need a little bit of luck, which we had at Newcastle [and] today. But, I’ve said this so many times, I think it was Michael Jordan [who said], ‘The harder we work, the more luck we get,’ and that is something I think you can say about this team. They work incredibly hard and there will be moments in the season where we work just as hard and we don’t find the luck of scoring a goal, but we always give ourselves a chance because we work so hard.