Liverpool coach Arne Slot confirmed after the 2-1 win against Lille in the Champions League that Curtis Jones was out due to injury.
Goals from Mohamed Salah and Harvey Elliott gave the Reds a seventh straight win in the league stage of the reformatted competition, securing them a place in the top eight and automatic qualification for the knockout stages.
The evening didn’t go as smoothly as Slot would have liked after successive difficult Premier League games against Nottingham Forest and Brentford, and things were further complicated when the Dutchman was forced into substitutions at half-time.
Slot planned to rotate his team to rest key players, with Dominik Szoboszlai deployed alongside Ryan Gravenberch to play only the first half. However, those plans had to change when Jones felt a pang before half-time, prompting the former Feyenoord coach to go in a different direction.
“Yes, the idea was to take Dom and Ryan off at halftime, but unfortunately Curtis couldn’t continue, so Dom stayed a little longer,” Slot told reporters. “There was a moment in the game. What he felt was that he said: ‘Let’s play for five more minutes and then we’ll see how it is’. But he said he had to come out at halftime.”
“We wanted to win this game, but we also knew we had to cope with the pressure. We would have been really, really, really unlucky if we had lost twice and still not been in the top eight. Like us.” I know now, I think 18 points would have been enough to get into the top eight, but with 21 there is no discussion.
Asked about the result and Liverpool’s progress, Slot added: “We’re delighted to be in the top eight. These rankings don’t tell you anything.”
“Maybe No. 24 is better than No. 16, but No. 16 had an easier draw. We want to be at the top, but we have to wait and see whether that is an advantage.”
“As a manager, I’m a little more impressed than the audience or the people watching TV. I knew her.” [Lille] went 21 games unbeaten, but beat both Real and Atletico Madrid, and without the best players in the world, with the utmost respect. I wasn’t happy about having a chance and conceding a goal.