Professional Salah receives high praise from Slot following commanding victory against Marseille in the Champions League.
Arne Slot praises ‘professional’ Salah after comfortable Liverpool win.
After Liverpool’s convincing victory in Marseille propelled them to fourth place in the Champions League standings, Arne Slot praised Mohamed Salah’s professionalism and singled out Joe Gomez.
Liverpool gave a strong effort and outcome against Roberto De Zerbi’s team to secure a ninth victory in 11 European away games. They will welcome Qarabag at Anfield next week in their final group match.
After returning from the Africa Cup of Nations, Salah played the entire game and helped Liverpool avoid the playoffs next month, even if he missed a crucial late opportunity.
“It says a lot about how big a professional he is that he can be away for more than a month with a different team and be so fit to play 90 for us after one day’s training,” Slot said.
“He was so close to a goal, it would usually be a goal from him, but it didn’t harm us because we scored three. I saw a lot of good individual performances tonight but I would like to single out Joe Gomez. He has suffered a lot with injuries in the last few years and I haven’t picked him sometimes when he has been fit. Tonight he was outstanding and so important to us winning 3-0.”
Slot said: “It’s always difficult to play Marseille because of their passionate fans and the quality of their players, but what makes it even harder is the quality of their manager. We were prepared for that. We took the ball off them three or four times in the first half but couldn’t find the player who was completely free, apart from one time and he was fractionally offside.
“On the ball we were controlled but what made the difference this time was that after we had a big chance and hit the post, they had a big chance and put it over. Usually this season that goes in. But we were able to make it 2-0, 3-0 and so that makes the perception of the game completely different.
“Against Burnley we created three or four times more than we did tonight but tonight we scored three. Everyone can disagree with me but we played a very good game against Burnley and another good game tonight, but the tactics were different.”