Arne Slot Manager
The Reds reclaimed the top spot in the Premier League with goals from Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones, outscoring Nicolas Jackson’s equaliser, shortly after Manchester City’s temporary lead. This match was held at Anfield, which now accommodates 61,000 spectators following the expansion of the Anfield Road end. The ambiance at Anfield, often a subject of debate, became a focal point after Liverpool’s 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest the previous month.
Arne Slot, reflecting on the importance of crowd support and challenges with officiating, said, “They were really important for us. I don’t know if this is something they say in England but they said it at my former club, which was also an impressive stadium, the referees are a bit impressed by the crowd and that’s why you get the easy decisions in your favour. But today showed that no matter how loud the fans were, the referee just wanted to show that he was able not to make the decisions he had to make. So it didn’t help us with the referee, but it definitely helped our players because they had to work so hard. And every time they cheer so hard for if you make a block tackle, or Darwin [Nunez] sprints back, or any of these moments, that definitely helps you mentally. So they were really important for us, for our players, but unfortunately it didn’t happen in the way people think Anfield gives you the easy penalties.”
Slot also expressed his frustration regarding added time, saying, “People in Holland know how frustrated I get about the amount of extra time added on to a game and there was no time delay from us at all today. And the last time we lost a game [Nottingham Forest], for the last 45 minutes, it was time delay, time delay, time delay, time delay, and he added on six minutes. And, of course, maybe seven minutes was true because of a few minutes but apart from the decisions that happened, the extra time is a bit of a frustration.”
