Dominik Szoboszlai explains sluggish Liverpool first-half display vs Ipswich

Dominik Szoboszlai has offered no excuses for Liverpool's lethargic first-half display against Ipswich Town, but did aim a sly dig at the kick-off time.

To say the Reds were well below par in the opening 45 minutes at Portman Road would be an understatement. They struggled to have any control of the game, didn't pose much of a threat going forward and were perhaps slightly fortunate to have gone in at the break on level terms as the newly-promoted team certainly created the better chances.

However, in the Premier League, quality always rises to the top and Liverpool came out for the second half with a different energy.

Two goals in quick succession from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah were enough for Arne Slot to celebrate a victory in his first competitive game as head coach but in truth, the scoreline could have been far greater as the two goalscorers as well as Luis Diaz all missed very presentable opportunities.

READ MORE: Liverpool 'needed' 25-year-old to beat Ipswich

Szoboszlai offers no excuses for below-par Liverpool

With a lot of focus placed on that first-half performance, Szoboszlai - who claimed the assist for Salah's goal - was asked by pundit Darren Bent as to how long it will take the Liverpool players to get up to full speed.

And the Hungary international's response was rather telling as he issued a warning to his teammates.

"I think we are at the maximum fitness, we just need to use it," Szoboszlai told OptusSport. "It's not an excuse, but 12:30, you know it's still morning actually.

"But for them [Ipswich] as well so it's not an excuse. From the next week on, we have to be ready from the first minute because sometimes it works like this but sometimes you concede a goal and then it's already too late."

CONFIRMED: He's not making excuses but Dominik Szoboszlai is definitely NOT a morning person 😂 pic.twitter.com/yd1he6ZNw5

— Optus Sport (@OptusSport) August 18, 2024

Clearly not too fond of early afternoon kick-offs, Szoboszlai will be happy to know Liverpool will not play in this time slot until the beginning of October when they travel to London to face Crystal Palace.

Slot's 12:30 kick-off admission

Of course, 12:30 kick-offs is something the Merseyside giants have become accustomed to in recent seasons, and Slot believes the first-half performance proved how much the team 'hated' this particular time slot.

"When I started here, there were many things that had been told to me, but one of them was that Jürgen [Klopp] hated the 12.30 kick-off, and today the team showed that we hated the 12.30 kick-off because we were not in the game in the first half," the Dutchman noted.

"And the second thing what people told me is that there are no easy games in the Premier League, and we showed that today. If you play against a newly promoted team and they can make such a fight out of it as they did in the first half, they can make it so difficult for us, then there's probably a lot more to come.

"And that's why it's also important for us to have weeks, like the upcoming ones, where we can work with the team to prepare them even better than we prepared them today because the first half was not good enough. The second half was a real good performance."