After his Liverpool team stayed top of the Premier League with a win at Crystal Palace that came at the cost of an injury to the goalkeeper Alisson, their manager set targets for “special things” far better than a good start to the season.
Thanks to Diogo Jota’s winner Arne Slot has now enjoyed the best start to any Liverpool manager’s career, having won nine of his first 10 games in charge. He stayed modest in his appraisal.
“You know how many great managers Liverpool had,” he said. “I hope you don’t remember me in one, two, three, four, five years only for this. We are hoping to do more special things. I have a very good squad and a very good start to continue getting the results we’ve been having.”
Their Brazilian goalkeeper limped off in the second half and the prognosis for the end of the month, when Liverpool play RB Leipzig, Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton across 10 days, is not promising. “Unfortunately Alisson will not be with us in these matches with how he walked off the pitch,” said Slot, suggesting a hamstring problem.
Vítezslav Jaros, the Czech making his first ever Liverpool appearance, played stand-in, and made a late save from Eberechi Eze, with Caoimhín Kelleher also absent with sickness. Slot confirmed the Irishman will take the gloves once Liverpool return after the international break.
“Almost in every position we have a second option, that’s also really good, and number three has already shown that,” he said, praising Jaros as “really good … it was a nice moment for him to make his debut for Liverpool.”
When compared withhis predecessor, Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool have a much improved defensive record. Slot attempted to explain: “One of the things that I think we saw today, how much we controlled the first 60 minutes, then we had 60-80 minutes, and then the last 10 minutes we had to control again. And that helps to also tire the other team.”
Oliver Glasner complained his winless Palace side were denied a penalty, when Virgil van Dijk manhandled Marc Guéhi. “For me it was a clear foul. VAR had to intervene but they didn’t.” Professional Game Match Officials Limited ruled “the challenge was not sustained holding and had no impact on the play”.
