13 hours Ago By Ailsa Cowen
Arne Slot was not happy despite Liverpool beating Girona on Tuesday evening to make it six from six in the Champions League. Mohamed Salah ’s penalty in the second half solidified Liverpool’s 100 per cent record in Europe, all but securing their ticket to the knockout stages. Slot criticised his side’s performance, however, and said: “If you ask me about all the six games, I’m really pleased with all the results.
“I’m really pleased with the first five games, but I’m far from pleased about the performance tonight. “What wasn’t I pleased about? I wasn’t pleased with a lot. If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football and knows how to bring the ball out from the back like some of the teams we’ve played recently such as Real Madrid and Manchester City , you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
“But if you are waiting a few seconds to press them then this team can cause you a lot of problems. I almost feel sorry for them as they deserve so much more. “We have an incredible goalkeeper.
But the other thing is every time we lost the ball, we were not aggressive enough and they could go almost all the way to our goal and have a shot. “We had hardly any control at all over the game. Maybe the second half was a bit better.
I’m trying to be positive." Despite Slot wanting more from his squad, he was pleased with one player in particular. Returning goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who has spent two months out of action after suffering a hamstring issue during Liverpool’s 1-0 over Crystal Palace at the start of October.
He came back in for number two Caoimhin Kelleher, who played the 10 games while he was out. Slot joked that his mediocre team were allowing Girona to run through and test the Brazilian’s true fitness. “I said as a joke that maybe players wanted to see how fit he really was, so to give him so much work,” he said.
“He showed again today why I said so many times that he is our first goalkeeper, that has nothing to do with Caoimhin (Kelleher) - he did so so well - but Alisson has been so important for this club for so many years. “He and showed today why he is one of the best - or in my opinion the best - in the world and let’s hope he can keep on putting these performances in and even more that he can stay fit." Andy Robertson commended match-winner Salah and said: “I think he has played better than he did tonight, most of us have, but when we needed him he stepped up.
“Six wins out of six, you can't ask for much better than that. It's not easy to do or else more teams would be doing it. We weren't at our best tonight, we have played better.
” Salah’s goal was his 50th in the Champions League, seeing him go joint-tenth in the all-time standings with the legendary AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi. He has also overtaken Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alfredo Di Stefano and Kylian Mbappe, as well as extended his season goal tally to 16. In addition to this, Salah is one goal away from equalling Billy Lidell's record of 228 goals for Liverpool .
With Salah still firing on all cylinders, his fellow forward has been struggling recently. Darwin Nunez 's form has caused concern with the Uruguayan scoring just three times in 19 appearances this season. And Slot admitted the player could be experiencing something of a crisis of confidence.
"What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances," Slot said on Nunez. "Then it's always the question: does this have anything to do with low confidence or is this a situation where he's in at the moment? "I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in, and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you're not able to score. Liverpool’s next game is on Saturday when they host Fulham .
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