Slot Talk: “It was Hard for Him”

Liverpool FC head coach Arne Slot explained his decision to substitute Cody Gakpo at half-time against Sunderland. Gakpo was taken off for Mohamed Salah, as Liverpool struggled to break down Sunderland’s low block.

This is what the head coach had to say at the post-match press conference:

“In my opinion, Cody struggled to dominate the one-v-ones.”

“If you want to have any chance against, like I said, they were pressing high but also in multiple situations they were in a low block, [so] the way to score is quite simple: you need a moment of magic from a player or you need a set-piece to score.”

“I felt in the first half Cody struggled to find that moment because it was hard for him to dominate the one-v-one or get crosses in. In the first half we played with [Dominik] Szoboszlai off the right to be defensively strong enough not to concede enough as we did in the last few weeks.”

“I changed it to Mo on the right side and then played with Florian Wirtz off the left. Like I said, we hardly conceded, but it was throughout the whole game difficult to create that moment of magic. From the set-pieces we had, we were once close – I think it was Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] in the first half who hit the post from a set-piece – but we had enough, especially in the end of the second half, but didn’t score.”

Liverpool are clearly still a work in progress. Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris expressed surprise at “having time and space to play and control the game”. Off the ball, Liverpool have yet to find an ideal combination of attackers for an effective front press, and are still at times remarkably easy to play through.