Ruthless Liverpool subs, straight talking – Slot analysed

“The players have to understand it wasn’t enough in the first half.”

New Liverpool boss Arne Slot revealed the away dressing room at Portman Road was not a happy place at half-time.

Slot, taking charge of his first Premier League game, had seen his Liverpool team fail to hit the intensity levels required to win in the division – no matter the opposition. Ipswich were brave, bold and aggressive as their in-your-face approach was not matched by the visitors. He was not impressed – and let his players know.

Of the 53 duels that were competed in the first 45 minutes, Ipswich won 58 per cent of them.

A high percentage of those duels were being won by Ipswich centre-forward Liam Delap, who gave Jarell Quansah a tough time. Slot spotted that issue and wasted no time in replacing Quansah at the break with Ibrahima Konate – it was not an injury-related substitution, it was purely tactical.

The Frenchman’s power and influence helped Liverpool regain control by stopping the flow into Delap and provided the launchpad for their second-half performance to rocket. Konate helped their duels-won ratio leap to 55 per cent after the break.

A haul of 2.61 expected goals from 15 shots in the second half, 13 of them from inside the box resulted in two goals and three points for Slot as Liverpool’s tactic of exploiting Ipswich’s very risky game of one-on-one defending up against Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah was exposed.

Slot said: “I said to them at half-time if you want to win here you have to win your duels and make it a fight. Ibou [Konate] helped us as he won his duels straightaway against the number nine and that gave us ball possession – we should have scored more than two goals.

“I have to give credit to Ipswich as they were aggressive and not afraid all over the pitch, they won more second balls and duels in the first half. That’s why it was an equal game. In the second half we won more duels and played the ball in behind. When teams play the risk of playing one-vs-one, when you have Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota we had to use them – we did that better in the second half.

“Jurgen (Klopp) hated the 12.30 kick-off and we played like we hated the 12.30 kick-off as we weren’t in the game in the first half. People told me there were no easy games in the Premier League and that showed today. Ipswich made it so difficult for us in the first half and there’s more of that to come.

“It wasn’t the first time in nine years that Liverpool have played well. I’ve inherited a really good team with great individuals. But the players have to understand it wasn’t enough in the first half. If they play at their maximum capacity then they can be really good. It was good to see the goals we scored.”

Salah: It’s a different style

Many observers will have been keen to assess how different this Liverpool team look under Slot.

There has been talk of the heavy metal football being replaced by a more orchestral kind of tempo. Yet, for large parts, the way Liverpool attacked still carried the direct nature of Klopp’s football.

Liverpool averaged 25.6 successful long passes per game last season but surpassed that at Portman Road, hitting 31.

Perhaps that was more a tactical decision of trying to break down Ipswich than a true reflection of Slot’s ideals as he is more traditionally a possession-based coach who likes to control games through the midfield.

Salah, who scored and assisted Jota’s opener, was asked about the change stylistically from Klopp to Slot.

Speaking to TNT Sports he said: “It’s quite different. Jurgen was in the team for eight years, he gave everything, now it’s a new manager and new system. It’s quite different for all of us, we need to adapt. We just need to know his way of playing and enjoy the football.

“We don’t need to put more pressure on him, we just need to play football and enjoy our games. Let’s see in the end.”