Liverpool manager Arne Slot believes that his team were close to perfection against Manchester City
Arne Slot says Liverpool “came close to perfection” in their 2-0 win over Manchester City that moved them nine points clear at the Premier League summit.
Liverpool piled more misery on Pep Guardiola’s side, with goals from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah compounding the Citizens to a sixth defeat in seven matches.
The Reds were worthy of their win, accumulating an expected goals (xG) tally of 3.35 from their 18 shots compared to City’s measly 0.82 from eight efforts.
Liverpool’s lead at the summit is their biggest margin as leaders in the competition since the final day of the 2019-20 campaign when they won their last title (18 points).
Though Slot did not want to get carried away with his latest victory, he lauded his side for their display at Anfield.
“Yeah [it was almost a perfect match], and if you look at the work-rate, I think it was perfect. The amount of chances we missed made it tight at the end,” Slot said.
“But maybe that’s nice for matches like this. It should be like this. But it would have been nicer to score the second goal earlier.
“We always press high, but they’re so good at build-up. So you have to work very hard. Our players had energy. Apart from our players, the crowd was fantastic today.
“We’re a compatible team, and it’s difficult to beat us. But also we have to put the effort in. But we have injuries. We had to take Trent [Alexander-Arnold] off. It would have been a risk.
“These are the challenges we face at the moment, but every team has to face these challenges over a season. Next week is a big week against Newcastle and Everton.
“Ideally, I would have loved to have seen the second half being the same as the first half. But the quality of the other team.
“If you want to win against City you have to be perfect in every part of the game. High press, low press, build-up. They bring so many problems to you.
“We came close to perfection. We weren’t perfect, but we came close to perfection. That’s the only way to beat a quality team like City.
“I don’t think anyone, including me, would have predicted this [start]. I knew Jurgen [Klopp] left the team in a very good place.
“But still, to win so much with all the difficult teams we have played already is not something you could predict at the start of the season.
“But, like I say, I saw Arsenal yesterday and Chelsea today and I saw City. They will come back because these teams have so much quality.
“They could go on the same run as us. So we have to stay sharp and focused.”
However, Slot also highlighted his side’s missed chances, with Liverpool perhaps unfortunate not to end the encounter with a more handsome scoreline.
Salah squandered the best of those opportunities, firing over after intercepting a pass from Bernardo Silva with only Stefan Ortega to beat.
“That’s true. Although I watched this game every time when I was not working here, maybe this game deserved the way it went because it was special until the end,” he added.
“But if you only look at it from a Liverpool perspective, it would not have been strange if we were two goals up at half-time or any other point of the game.
“City were dominating possession but still the chances were for us. You have 90 minutes of concern when you play City because they can cause you troubles or problems in every single second of the game.
“Even if you are 2-0 up you think like this. I saw a game with my former club doing something special. But no, you never feel comfortable when you play City because of the quality of their players and their manager.”
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