What We Learned from Liverpool’s First Win Under Arne Slot

Well Arne Slot has his first win as Liverpool Head Coach, that’s if you actually count these games at all. A 1-0 victory against Real Betis ensured that a raft of stateside reds went home happy to have seen most of their hero’s and even a few new potential superstars.

It was good at times, a bit disjointed at others, but that was to be expected at this stage and with so many substitutions during the game. It’s the first game of the US tour and there were still some familiar faces in the Betis line-up including our old mate Adrian. We look at the lessons learned from this one.

Szob’s Tidy Finish Wanted More

It was a really up and down campaign for Szoboszlai last year, but it was nice and tidy here and he proved the match-winner. Playing as part of a double ten with Curtis Jones, the goal was well-worked as he received the ball from Nyoni on the half-turn, laid it off to Salah who found his continued run into the area before planting a finish in the keepers bottom right side-netting.

With his running power and shooting ability, it’s something we’ll hope to see more of as the real stuff starts. Szob even commented on it afterwards stating “ Last year it didn’t happen so often so I just always let him know I’m always ready to [make] these runs. Hopefully you’re going to see me [do that] in the season a couple of times.” Let’s hope we do.

It’s Trey Day

Well well well. The game had looked pretty much like a big-standard pre-season friendly until young Trey Nyoni entered the Frey. Jones (let’s hope the injury not too bad) and Endo looked like they were finding their sea legs in there, but all that changed when the youngster replaced the former after about 30 minutes.

We shouldn’t get too carried away, but it was hard to believe you were watching a 17 year-old, so composed on the ball, looking to consistently pass forward and a key part in the goal. Most will have him (rightly for me) as their man of the match and the biggest compliment you can give him is he looked a real player at this level. Whatever it is, he’s got it. You won’t need to be promoted, but remember the name.

https://twitter.com/AnfieldIndex/status/1817094512642044366

Some Hints From Slot

Well it’s unlikely we’ll be playing that 4-2-4 with Harvey and Szob there regularly, but with the personnel missing it was needed. The control element was largely there in possession and only one big chance was conceded. No-one had told Quansah or Jaros this was a friendly either as they put themselves about a bit too.

There were hints and Slot was detailed afterwards stating “ I think during the season you will see us play with a real striker. But at this moment we have no-one available and then with Dom and Harvey [Elliott] we’ve got two No.10s, so we put them in the position they will play during the season as well. So that was one of the reasons why we played with a double 10 instead of with a striker. That is maybe out of necessity.

The build-up from the back was pretty nice too and Van Der Berg looked a solid citizen if not spectacular. You shouldn’t be too hard on the likes of Endo and Curtis as it is pre-season, but reds will have liked a lot of what they saw. Onto Arsenal and then United in the next few days. It was great to see the reds back though eh.