Slot says Liverpool gained ‘confidence’ from big Qarabag win

Arne Slot has said his Liverpool forwards have gained ‘confidence’ from the club’s 6-0 thrashing of Qarabag in midweek.

Liverpool return to Premier League action against Newcastle United tomorrow night, aiming to address a five-game winless run in the league. A convincing win over Qarabag in midweek secured progress to the Champions League’s last 16 and Slot is hopeful his team can build from there.

Florian Wirtz, the returning Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike and Federico Chiesa were all on target with Slot pleased to see the club’s attacking talent gain a life.

Asked if he was pleased to see Salah score for the first time since returning from AFCON duty, Slot said: “It’s always about the team and the team has to make sure that he gets in good positions. That’s what we are doing more and more, not only with him but with many players.

“I have said recently that our game in between both boxes is good enough for our attackers to be often in promising positions and we know that if this happens enough times then our players will do what we expect of them because they have so much quality.

“You were talking about Mo, but a great example might also be Florian [Wirtz], who was three minutes before the end against Bournemouth in exactly the same potions as he was when he scored for 2-0 [against Qarabag]. In Bournemouth he decided to play a through pass and now [against Qarabag] he went on and scored. This is how football works – sometimes the ball hits the post, sometimes the bar. Sometimes you make the wrong decisions, sometimes the execution is not perfect.

“But I was really pleased for Mo that he scored that goal because no matter how much he has scored for this club it is always good to be on the scoresheet, as it was for Federico [Chiesa] as well, and for Florian. That always gives a bit of confidence to the team, but also to individuals.”

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