Arne Slot insisted that Mohamed Salah and Alexander Isak will develop an understanding in attack after Liverpool’s stoppage-time defeat by Chelsea meant they relinquished top spot to Arsenal.
Salah and Isak were disappointing as the champions fell to their third successive defeat in all competitions but Slot is confident that his big-name forwards will improve once they get to know each other.
“The more they play together the more they will connect,” the Liverpool manager said. “You have to work really hard to reach a certain level and then it’s very hard in football because you also play against very good teams to keep that level going. What I mean by that is consistency. But it’s clear that we had our changes in the summer. Players came in different moments.
“Last week there’s hardly been any training time. Still we need to try to bring these players in. If the result would have been better today with a draw or a win then we would have had a great start to the season if you take into account everything that happened in the summer in Liverpool.”
Slot, who had to rejig his defence after Ibrahima Konaté went off with a thigh injury in the second half, defended Salah’s wayward finishing.
“What I like is that we brought him many times in the position he would like to be in,” the Dutchman said. “And I would like him to be in because he’s shown in his career and since I’m here that in those positions he can score goals. He had many opportunities to do what he’s done so often. He’s a human being and it’s not like every chance he gets is always a goal. We feel sometimes it is because of what he’s done last season.”
Liverpool host Manchester United after the international break and Slot believes that better finishing would have stopped his side from losing to Chelsea and Crystal Palace. “In both games we’ve created more chances than the team we have faced but the truth is that we have only scored once in both games and our opponent has scored twice,” he said.
Chelsea led through Moisés Caicedo’s early goal and it seemed they would have to settle for a point when Cody Gakpo equalised. But Enzo Maresca’s side moved up to sixth when Estêvão Willian, the Brazilian teenager, popped up in the 95th minute to score his first goal in English football.
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Estêvão’s intervention sparked wild scenes and led to Maresca receiving a second yellow card for his celebrations. Chelsea’s head coach will serve a touchline ban when his team visit Nottingham Forest.
Willy Caballero, Maresca’s assistant, was left to conduct post-match media duties. “He’s okay,” Caballero said of Maresca. “He cannot be here because of the red card. He wanted me to praise the players because of the effort they have done today. We deserved the victory because of the chances we created.”
