Gary Neville EXPLAINS the one thing he REALLY admires about Arne Slot's Liverpool
Gary Neville has heaped praise on Arne Slot's flexibility to ensure Liverpool secured all three points at Ipswich Town on the opening weekend of the 2024/25 Premier League season.
Liverpool defeated Premier League newcomers Ipswich Town on Saturday courtesy of second-half strikes from Diogo Jota and Mohammed Salah. It was no easy ride for Arne Slot in his first Premier League outing as his side needed a much improved display after the half-time interval to what he saw prior.
Slot, who is not shy of making subs at half-time, or earlier, if needed, made the ruthless decision to replace Jarell Quansah with Ibrahima Konate in a bid to see his side win more duels which he believes is a given before tactics are even discussed.
"We don't have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels and that's what we did.
"It's not to say Jarell lost every duel, many of us lost too many duels, but i think we needed Ibou [Konate] to win these long balls through the air. So that helped and gave us control and I don't think they [Ipswich] could keep up with us in the second half," Slot said.
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GARY NEVILLE PRAISES 'ADAPTABLE' ARNE SLOT
On Monday Night Football, Gary Neville heaped praise on Slot's adaptable approach to deal with the competitive, high-energy approach from Kieran McKenna's side labelling the Dutchman's tweaks as 'clinical'.
"I think he has been clinical at half-time, one in making the substitute he did, but he was also quite matter of fact about it after the game.
"But also he has been quite flexible. Forget the duels he is talking about, they have also changed the way they play, they expanded the back four and went wider.
"Taking over Jurgen Klopp what a massive job he's got, but it's a good start, a really good start," said Neville.