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Arne Slot was delighted with the way his Liverpool side hit back to beat Brighton this afternoon.
The Seagulls bossed the first half and deservedly led at the break through Ferdi Kadioglu’s fine goal.
But Cody Gakpo equalised with a cross-shot that eluded everyone and went in before Mohamed Salah scored a trademark curling effort to secure the win and move the Reds to the top of the Premier League table, two points clear of Manchester City, who were surprisingly beaten at Bournemouth.
Our goalscorers 🤳 pic.twitter.com/N7xeNLr1mk
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 2, 2024
Slot said: “I think a lot of things happen during a season. Sometimes you have to defend a lead, sometimes you have to come back after going 1-0 behind. So, this is a win you also need in a season where you want to be competitive, because you cannot always be from the first until the last second the best team on the pitch.
“Sometimes you have a difficult period and then you need to fight back, and that’s what we did. I didn’t ask – I would love them to do so and they did in the end – but I didn’t ask them to score two goals, I only asked them to play a different second half than we played against Nottingham Forest, with a different mentality – so if things go against you, you have to show up.
“Winners always do, and fortunately we have a lot of winners in our team that showed up in the second half.”
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First half not good enough – Slot
Slot accepted, however, that repeats of that first-half display will cause them problems down the line.
“What I do like a lot is that last week, two times we came from one goal behind against Arsenal, 1-0 and 2-1, and two times we were able to fight ourselves back into the game [to draw 2-2],” he added.
“And in this game we were 1-0 down at half-time, which I think we deserved, and then to come back so strong against such a quality team that has spent so much money in recent years, gives me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.
But I also added after the game to the players that 45 minutes of the football we played in the first half will, in the end, punish you somewhere. So we need to show up from the start.
“The crowd was incredible the second half. Our players [too] but our fans as well. It was the loudest crowd since I’ve been here.”
👏👏👏 pic.twitter.com/X5SwYVDtRF
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) November 2, 2024
Golden Gomez
Slot reserved special praise for Joe Gomez, who came on at half-time for the injured Ibrahima Konate and turned in a stellar display.
He said: “Yeah, that says a lot about his mentality. That also says a lot about his quality, if you don’t play that much and you come in, in a game where your teammates were outplayed for 45 minutes, that you can come in and play like this…
“And it also says a lot about his mentality in recent weeks and months, where he didn’t play that much, but he is now able without playing a lot to play 90 minutes on Wednesday and to bring in a performance like this on Saturday.
“But this is what people told me when I came in: Joe is a top, top, top professional who always, no matter what position he is in, gives his best for the team and for himself in the end as well. He got the reward for it today because I think the fans loved what they saw – I definitely did.”