Liverpool celebrated a success on Arne Slot’s first visit to Manchester City with a mature performance. In addition to the Dutchman’s tactics, Mohamed Salah was once again responsible for this.
On his first visit to the Ethiad Stadium, Arne Slot achieved what Jürgen Klopp never achieved in the Guardiola era in Manchester: a league win. One reason for the Dutchman’s first victory was his adaptability. The Reds allowed their opponents to have the ball much more often than usual: they only had 34 percent possession at the final whistle – the lowest figure for a Liverpool Premier League victory since the 2003/04 season.
“You can’t have the ball all game. You have to defend as a team,” explained Curtis Jones in an interview with Viaplay. Virgil van Dijk also reminded his teammates of this after Mohamed Salah’s 1-0, as the club product revealed.
In general, the captain acts as a voice of caution within the team and, despite now having an 11-point lead over Arsenal, who still have a game in hand, did not want to talk about the championship race being decided yet. “Virgil just said it in the locker room: ‘They’ll say we’re there, that we’re the champions. We’re not there yet and we shouldn’t let it get to us,” said Jones.
Salah is certainly driving the LFC fans crazy at the moment. The Egyptian is in scintillating form and, after scoring in Manchester, also made an appearance as a provider. This secured him a record: Salah is the first player in the Premier League to collect more than 40 scorer points in two seasons (42 in the 2017/18 season, 41 in the current one). It seems likely that the winger will break his personal record in what may be his final season, as Salah’s contract expires in the summer.
Accordingly, the 32-year-old has dubbed the current one his best. “Maybe people prefer my first season, but I prefer this one because winning the league and helping the young players is something special. We need another title. Me and the big guys on the team need another title,” said Salah. The ‘big guys’ are doing a great deal to achieve this, as last Sunday’s impressive performance showed.
