Arne Slot has admitted he got his Liverpool starting lineup wrong in their hard-fought 3-1 win over Southampton. The Reds had to come from behind to secure three points, moving them another step closer to the Premier League title.
Liverpool, widely expected to cruise past a struggling Southampton side sitting at the bottom of the table with just nine points all season, found themselves in an unexpected battle. Just days earlier, Slot’s team had put in a grueling shift in their 1-0 Champions League victory over Paris Saint-Germain. That effort clearly took its toll, with many Liverpool players looking fatigued in the first half at St. Mary’s.
Despite knowing the physical demands of the PSG game, Slot only made three changes to his starting XI. However, one of those not included from the start was Harvey Elliott, who had come off the bench to score a dramatic late winner in Paris. That decision proved costly in the first half as Liverpool struggled to find their rhythm and went behind in stoppage time.
Recognizing the problem, Slot made a triple substitution at halftime, bringing Elliott on to change the game. Liverpool immediately improved, with Darwin Nunez grabbing the equalizer before Mohamed Salah fired home two penalties to secure a crucial win.
When asked about his decision to leave Elliott on the bench, Slot admitted:
“It’s always a difficult decision not to start Harvey, not to start Wata [Endo], not to start all the other ones I don’t play. But if someone comes in [for] five minutes, touches his first ball and scores a goal and then changes your whole idea about the line-ups you made before, that would be a bit weird as well.
“He had a good impact on the game today, again a good impact on the game. That’s why he got 45 minutes today as well because he did so well in Paris. But there is also a reason why I play so many times the other ones and all the time they deserved that trust. Today, if I could do it one more time over I would have started differently than I started today, but you don’t know this in advance.”
Another player who struggled in the first half was Dominik Szoboszlai. The Hungarian midfielder has been a key part of Liverpool’s title charge, renowned for his incredible work rate. However, Slot acknowledged that Szoboszlai was not himself against Southampton.
“Every time I’m sitting here and talking about Dominik, I’m talking about, ‘He’s a machine. He can just keep on going, running, running, running.’ But it was maybe the first time this season that I saw a different energy from him, which is maybe normal. Maybe I made a mistake by playing him because he gives so much every single game.
“Now the good thing is he only played 45 [minutes], so he’s more rested for the upcoming week now than he is if I would have played him for 90. And the good thing for me is I have more than only one good midfielder in terms of Dominik. We have quite a few and Harvey came in really strong and helped the team again after him helping the team against Paris Saint-Germain.”
Liverpool’s comeback win keeps them firmly on track for the title, but Slot’s admission highlights the fine margins at the top level. With crucial games ahead, he’ll be hoping to avoid similar mistakes in the future.
