'Far from satisfied': Arne Slot slams Liverpool performance despite perfect Champions League record
Arne Slot was unhappy even though Liverpool beat Girona on Tuesday night to go six out of six in the Champions League.
Mohamed SalahThe second-half penalty cemented Liverpool's 100 per cent record in Europe, all but securing their ticket to the knockout stages.
Slot, however, criticized his team's performance, saying: “If you ask me about the six games, I am very satisfied with the results.
“I am very satisfied with the first five games, but I am far from satisfied with tonight's performance.
“What did I not like? He was dissatisfied with many things. If you play against a team that has such a good idea of football and knows how to get the ball from behind as some of the teams we have played with recently, like real Madrid and city of manchesterYou must be very intense if you want to make it difficult for him.
“But if you wait a few seconds to pressure them, this team can cause you a lot of problems. I almost feel sorry for them because they deserve so much more.
“We have an incredible goalkeeper. But the other thing is that every time we lost the ball, we weren't aggressive enough and they could get almost to our goal and shoot.
“We barely had control over the game. Maybe the second half was a little better. “I try to be positive.”
Even though Slot wanted more from his team, he was pleased with one player in particular.
Returning goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who has spent two months out of action after suffering a hamstring problem during Liverpool's 1-0 win over Crystal Palace in early October.
He returned in place of number two Caoimhin Kelleher, who played all 10 games while he was out.
Slot joked that his mediocre team was allowing Girona to run and check the true physical shape of the Brazilian.
“I jokingly said that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he really was, to give him so much work,” he said.
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“Today he showed again why I said so many times that he is our first goalkeeper, that has nothing to do with Caoimhin (Kelleher), he did so well, but Alisson has been very important for this club for so many years.
“He has shown today why he is one of the best – or in my opinion the best – in the world and let's hope he can continue to put in these performances and even more so that he can stay fit.”
Andy Robertson praised match winner Salah, saying: “I think he played better than tonight, most of us have, but when we needed him, he stepped up.
“Six wins out of six, you can't ask for much better than that. It's not easy to do, but more teams would do it. Tonight we were not at our best, we played better.”
Salah's goal was his 50th in the Champions League, putting him in 10th place in the all-time rankings alongside legendary AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi.
He also surpassed Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alfredo Di Stéfano and Kylian Mbappé, as well as extending his goal tally for the season to 16.
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In addition to this, Salah is one goal away from equaling Billy Lidell's record of 228 goals in Liverpool.
With Salah still firing on all cylinders, his fellow striker has been struggling recently.
Darwin NunezThe form has caused concern, with the Uruguayan scoring just three goals in 19 appearances this season.
And Slot admitted that the player might be experiencing something of a crisis of confidence.
“What I agree with is that he missed some opportunities,” Slot said of Nunez.
“Then the question always arises: does this have something to do with low confidence or is this a situation that you are in right now?
“I think every striker around the world has periods where every ball goes in and sometimes he has a period where you try really hard but you're not able to score.
Liverpool's next game will be on Saturday when they host Liverpool. Fulham.
