ReactionArne Slot press conference: Newcastle 2-3 Liverpool, Ngumoha, Szoboszlai and more
Arne Slot saluted the mental resilience of his Liverpool side after their dramatic 3-2 win away at Newcastle United on Monday night.
Rio Ngumoha, aged 16 years and 361 days, became the Reds' youngest scorer of all time by netting the decider at St. James' Park with 100 minutes on the clock.
The teenager's heroics were required after the 10-man hosts fought back from 2-0 down in the second half through goals from Bruno Guimaraes and William Osula.
Ryan Gravenberch opened the scoring in the 35th minute, ahead of Anthony Gordon's sending-off on the stroke of half-time, and the Premier League champions' lead was doubled 20 seconds after the interval by Hugo Ekitike.
Read on for a full transcript from Slot's post-match press conference…
On the game…
How do you sum an evening like this up? It felt familiar to me; I think I have experienced a game like this once before since I'm here in England – that was Everton away last season. Where so many things happened, where it was complete chaos, where the fans were so loud and so there for the home team and our fans tried to help us as much as they could.
It was an unbelievable atmosphere and for us to stay strong in that atmosphere for such a long time is worth more to me than when we play every single time out from the back and we have a four or five-nil win. These wins, these mean more to me than when we play good football because tonight had, for me, nothing to do with tactics or good football. It was a great game to watch but not because of tactics or good football. But because for every single second of the game everybody was on the front of their seat.
On Ngumoha's winner…
We needed a goal but the best part for me of our game was after we conceded the 2-2 – it was also their best part of the game. But what I mean with that is I think they got three or four corner kicks after they scored the 2-2, 15 throw-ins, 112 free-kicks! Not as many as I'm saying but it felt as if it was so much and the two of them [Harvey Elliott and Ngumoha] were waving because I didn't feel like I could bring them in if we had to defend so many corner kicks or set-pieces. They were so close to scoring the 3-2 but we stood strong. Virgil [van Dijk], Ali [Becker], Ibou [Konate], they helped us a lot in these moments.
And then at last, after four or five minutes, we got the ball in a neutral position – I think we got a free-kick – [and] I could bring the both of them in. It's, of course, special for him to score a goal in a moment like this. We know how it feels [as] last season we conceded the 3-3 in the 89th minute. And now we were the lucky ones – that's what we were, we were lucky to get a winner over the line here.
On whether he was 'disappointed' Liverpool did not control the second half more…
No, not at all. Not at all, because that is what their playing style brought. You cannot control a game of football if every single ball is thrown into your 18-yard box, every throw-in is a long throw-in, every free-kick they get is a long ball. And they can do both – that's why this is such a good team. They can play out from the back if they want to, they can be intense in their pressing, they have so many quality players. But they also have the quality to play a game like this with so many big players.
Of course it helps a little bit to have an extra man in a set-piece but if the goalkeeper takes the ball, there is no use in having an extra player anymore. So with set-pieces, it helps a little bit to have one extra player but not as much as you would like. It was impossible for us to control the game. When we had the ball, we kept it quite long and I was hoping for us to do more, to create more, because our attackers were not patient enough.
Every time when we were quite calm in the build-up but then we ended with our attackers [where] they should keep the ball longer and every time [they] forced a pass. The ball went behind and then we had to defend a long goal-kick again. We couldn't control the game better but that was mainly to do with their playing style and how hard they made it for us.
On Dominik Szoboszlai playing at right-back…
Talking about mentality, it is not easy to play as a full-back if you've only been a midfielder in your career. He played there once in pre-season – I think it was against Stoke when we played behind closed doors – but in that game we only had the ball and now he had to defend a lot. For him to put in a performance like that, you can say a lot about his mentality – as you can about all the players because this was mentally such a difficult evening, such a difficult place to go to, such a difficult opponent to play against. For us to be able to get a result, let alone getting a win, is a big compliment for the boys.
On whether results like this 'win titles'...
That is the last thing I think about in this moment, if I'm honest. Winning away at Newcastle then you definitely need to have quality, especially in an atmosphere like this. Not football quality because that's not what we showed today – apart from the last goal we scored. That looked a little bit like what I see on a daily basis on the training ground. But to have the mentality to fight here in such a hostile stadium, that is definitely something you also need if you want to compete in the end. Winning is something else but at least competing you definitely need to have this mentality – and that's what we showed.