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Louise Thomas
Editor
Head coach Arne Slot insists he wants to be remembered for “more special things” than setting the record for the best start by a Liverpool boss.
The Dutchman became the first at the club to win eight of his first nine matches after a hard-fought 2-0 victory over Bologna which maintained their 100 per cent Champions League record.
“I don’t draw many conclusions from that but it is nice. So, so many incredible managers have worked here, doing so many special things,” he said.
“The only thing is I don’t hope the only thing people remember me for in one, two or three years – you never know how long I’ll be here – they only say, ‘That is the manager who only won eight of his nine games’.
“I’m hoping to do more special things than winning eight out of nine games.
“You will probably never reach perfection. You are always aiming for perfection but you will never reach this.
“We can improve, we have to improve. That is clear. But there are also a lot of positives to take from tonight and from the other games.
“But there was a spell in the game where we didn’t control. They were threatening us more than I would like to see. But again, this is normal.
“For most parts of the game we controlled, we had more ball possession, but they threatened us.”
Slot was full of praise for man of the match Mohamed Salah, who scored for the ninth time in as many Champions League games with the decisive second – after providing an early assist for Alexis Mac Allister’s first goal in the competition.
“What can I say about Mo?” he said. “What you saw today is what you get. If you bring him often enough into positions like this, he can score a goal. He got a great assist as well.
“If you look at the way he scores it, I can understand everyone is talking about the finish because it was a fantastic finish. He almost had the same one just before.
“Before Wolves, Mo played three games without scoring a goal. In football, it can happen that sometimes in three games you score one, or you don’t score.
“But these players like Mo, like Darwin (Nunez), they will always score their goals if you just keep playing them.”
Bologna coach Vincenzo Italiano was proud of his side.
“We wanted to leave Anfield with our heads held high, and I think we did that,” he said.
“It’s a bit of a shame that we didn’t manage to score at least one goal but we knew this was a learning curve for us and we laid the foundations tonight for our future journey.”
