In the 2nd round of the Champions League, Liverpool beat Bologna 2-0 at home with Salah's pass and shot. After the match, Reds boss Slaughter attended the conference and commented on his team's performance.
Talking about one's first Champions League game at Anfield
It was a great game because we came out on top," said Slot. It wasn't an easy game, but that's normal in the Champions League. You meet a lot of strong and resilient teams and Bologna is one of them. The Champions League is always full of surprises, judging by the results of the other games tonight. We won, haven't conceded a goal, the fans saw a great performance from the players and overall it was a positive game."
Talking about further improving
Slaughter emphasized, "Perfection is never attainable, but we always strive for it. We can and must improve, that's obvious. But there are also a lot of positives to take from this game and others. There were periods in the game when we didn't have control and our opponents threatened us more than I expected, but that's normal. Champions League matches are never one-sided and the offense is always on both sides. I think for most of the game we were in control and had more possession, but Bologna also created threats, especially towards the end of the first half."
Talking about Salah's fifth consecutive Champions League home breakthrough
Slot was full of praise for Salah's performance: 'What can I say about Salah? You saw it in this game, if you put him in a position like this regularly, he can score goals and he had a great assist. The second goal was a fantastic finish, but it's probably unfair to Van Dyke, Wakita, Sobosloe, Arnold, etc. to only talk about Salah. Because Van Dyke sent a direct pass, Jota moved the ball, Sobosloe sent an assist and Arnold set up before Salah had the space to cut inside."
Were you "surprised" by Bologna's style of play?
It's not surprising because we analyzed them in depth," Slaughter said. It's no coincidence that this team has only lost one game. In the match against Atalanta, they held a 1-0 lead for almost the whole match, and we know how strong Atalanta is. So I'm not surprised by Bologna's performance, they're not afraid to organize attacks from the back or to resort to man-to-man tactics."
Talking about Nunez's athleticism
Sloter defended Nunez: "He's only scored one goal this season, but you have to look at his playing time as well. I think this is his third start of the season. I don't focus on one player like you guys do. We didn't create a lot of chances for him in the first hour either because we didn't do a good job with the final pass. If he had been on the pitch for more time, we might have created more chances for him. He scored a fantastic goal against Bournemouth at home. Today he came on against a team that was really difficult for him to play against and his teammates didn't always find him. So after three starts it doesn't make much sense to talk excessively about him scoring just one goal and it's too early to draw conclusions."
More on Salah
Slotter added: "I'm still thinking about Nunez. Salah didn't score in three consecutive games before playing West Ham United. So, in soccer, sometimes you score one goal or no goal in three games. But people like Salah and Nunez, if you keep playing them, they will always score. The problem is that I can't field everyone! But it's good to have them, they always score. Salah played well today and I'm happy with his performance now. I don't think about next season, we still have six games to play in the Champions League stage and hopefully more after that."
Talking about Hrafenberg's ability to disrupt Bologna's man-to-man tactics
Slaughter noted, "There are several ways to break down a defense, and one of them is when a player breaks through with the ball and dishes out a pass. Because if you cross the opponent, you immediately have a numerical advantage. Hrafenbecher was outstanding again today, and his ability to cross the ball is important for this team. But if we only focus on his dishing, we might forget how important he is without the ball. He did a lot of work and won the ball many times."
What conclusions did you draw from becoming the first Reds skipper to win 8 of his first 9 games?
Slaughter humbly stated, "I don't draw a lot of conclusions, but it's nice. Because there are so many incredible coaches working here and doing so many special things. But I don't want that to be the only reason people remember me one year, two years, three years. You don't know how long I'm going to be here! I don't want people to just say 'this is a manager who won eight of his first nine', I want to do something more special! I took over this squad after Klopp left, the players put in a lot of effort and my coaching staff helped me to achieve these results. But I want to do something more special than just winning eight out of the first nine games."
