Arne Slot reveals frustrated half-time message to Liverpool players against Southampton | Football

Arne Slot was far from happy with his Liverpool when they were 1-0 down to Southampton at half-time on Saturday, which led to making three substitutions at the break.

Will Smallbone had given the Saints a shock half-time lead at Anfield, capitalising on a calamitous mix-up between Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker.

The Reds boss was not impressed with how much energy his team were exhibiting against the bottom team in the division and hauled off three players.

Off came Kostas Tsimikas, Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones, replaced by Andy Robertson, Harvey Elliott and Alexis Mac Allister.

It was a very different second stanza, with the home team winning 3-1 thanks to a goal from Darwin Nunez and a brace from Mo Salah.

Serving a touchline ban, Slot was eventually delighted, but was anything but at the break.

‘I didn’t give them compliments at half-time, I can tell you,’ Slot told a press conference.

‘Phew! Maybe it’s because I was sitting up there [in the stands] not at the line because I know from experience that when you watch a game over there you think, maybe I can even play in this game, but if you’re at the line it’s always more tempo.

‘But I don’t think I was wrong this time if I said at half-time that energy levels were far, far, far too low.

‘That had to change and that’s why we made there substitutions. Apart from bringing in quality, also create something because nine out of 10 times, you take three out the other eight are like, woah! Something else should happen.

‘That’s the only thing I could come up with at half-time, to create something different for the second half.’

Salah scored two penalties in the second half and revealed that the normally calm Dutchman was ‘going for us’ at the interval.

‘A bit of frustration,’ Salah said of Slot’s half-time words. ‘The manager, his head, was like going for us – but that’s something you need sometimes.

‘Because first half, the game was sloppy, we just were slow and taking our time and in the last minute they managed to [go ahead in] the game.

‘But we are now more experienced, we can manage that situation and I’m glad that we did.’

Slot’s men are now a mammoth 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League table after picking up their 21st win from 29 games.

Second-place Arsenal have two games in hand on them, starting with a trip to Manchester United on Sunday, but the Premier League trophy is looking increasingly likely to be heading to Anfield in May.

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