Arne Slot reflects on the performances of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak as Liverpool beat West Ham United 2-0
Liverpool boss Arne Slot speaks after his side’s win at West Ham United(Image: Rob Newell – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Arne Slot admitted he went against the advice of his performance staff regarding Florian Wirtz as the Liverpool playmaker starred in a 2-0 win over West Ham United. The Germany international had missed the last two games with an injury after returning from the break with an issue.
But he was restored to the team at the London Stadium as goals from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo sealed a vital victory for the Premier League champions.
Wirtz arguably turned in his best display in the Premier League so far since his £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer as he played in an advanced midfield role that also saw Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister support him in the engine room.
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Slot was reluctant to heap too much praise on the No.7 but was pleased with his contributions, revealing he opted against the instructions of his fitness coaches, who felt a substitution was needed before the eventual 75th-minute swap for Curtis Jones.
“The team played a very good game,” the Liverpool head coach said said. “Recently I’ve been asked a lot about individuals when maybe they’ve played a game not of their usual standards and I’ve pointed out the team every single time.
“After a very positive performance from Florian, I can acknowledge that but I also want to emphasise the team performance was much better.
“We tried to create an extra midfielder and he was very important for us to find that extra midfielder every time.
“He was good when he made a dribble, he was good with his one-touch passes, he played one ball to Cody, which then doesn’t lead to a shot, but we had many of those moments and he was part of many of them.
“Performance staff were constantly telling me ‘he needs to go out’ because he’d be out for one-and-a-half weeks and had only trained once, so to a certain extent it was maybe a bit of a risk to keep him in the team, but some situations ask for an exception, and today was one of them.”
The Reds took the lead when Isak calmly converted his first league goal for the Reds since his £125m move from Newcastle United on transfer deadline day.
And Slot said: “That is also a bit unfair to him (to say the goal was a relief). Normally, as a No.9, in general, he plays more minutes than I have played Alex now because of the obvious reasons.
“Even today, I had to take him off after 68 minutes. He has played a lot of games, but in terms of minutes, not so much.
“It’s very important for us as a team that we went 1-0 and important for him because it was his third chance of this game and I don’t think there was much more than 10 minutes left in him.
“To score just before you come off is important for us and him.”