Slot: Strength Earned Us Three Points Despite Southampton Challenge

Liverpool manager Arne Slot praised his team after a second-half comeback secured a 3-2 victory over Southampton, with the Premier League leaders facing the threat of losing to the last-placed team before Mohamed Salah became the savior.

Liverpool had a chance to open the scoring from a Southampton mistake but failed to capitalize in the first half, before falling behind 2-1 at the start of the second half. Salah then scored twice to extend Liverpool’s lead to eight points at the top of the table.

Slot told Sky Sports: “In the second half, I saw the strength I was looking for in the first half. Southampton made it very difficult for many teams, including top clubs. They made things tough for us today, even though we dominated the game. There wasn’t enough urgency and pressure to get into the penalty area (in the first half), and we kept the ball instead of attacking the box. Despite being behind in the second half, we showed more pressure, urgency, and intensity. That led to many opportunities, and eventually, we scored two goals. It’s hard to create chances (against) a team playing a 4-5-1 setup, sitting back. But we know Southampton wants to play that way, so you have to be really aggressive, or they have a very good game plan.”

Salah increased his tally to 10 goals in the league this season, just two behind top scorer Erling Haaland. The Egyptian has scored six goals in his last five league matches.

Salah stunned the Southampton fans with his first goal, as he simply touched the ball from outside the box while the Southampton goalkeeper rushed forward, and the ball rolled into the net. He later sealed the victory with a penalty.

Slot added: “If you want to win, you have to score goals, and we know Mo (Salah) is capable of scoring. For me, his first goal was the most important, as we scored from nothing. After that, we just had to wait for the second goal.”