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Louise Thomas
Editor
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah insists the players are not putting any pressure on themselves despite a record-breaking start under new head coach Arne Slot.
The Egypt international provided an assist and then scored the decisive late second goal in the 2-0 Champions League victory over Bologna which made it eight wins from nine matches.
Slot is the first boss in the club’s history to start their reign with that level of success and it has not only allayed any initial concerns about how they would adapt during the transition period following Jurgen Klopp’s departure but also led to a re-evaluation of expectations this season.
That is not something which is concerning the squad, though, with Salah telling uefa.com: “It’s too early so we don’t have to put pressure on ourselves, we just have to take it game by game and see what will happen.”
However, captain Virgil van Dijk has warned the players have to do better to make life easier for themselves at times.
After taking an 11th-minute lead with Alexis Mac Allister’s first Champions League goal, Slot’s side then struggled to build on that advantage and were grateful to goalkeeper Alisson Becker and twice the frame of the goal to keep them ahead at half-time.
There was a similar scenario at Wolves last weekend where, having gone ahead, they allowed their opponents back into the game and even after going 2-1 in front they did not manage the last 15 minutes particularly well.
“I think the first half was not the best – we gave some chances away because we were sloppy in possession,” said the Netherlands international.
“I think we could have done a lot better in the final third; a couple of times we came to the edge of the box and made the wrong decision in terms of the final pass.
“Hopefully we learn from it and do it much better, otherwise it could be a very tough season.
“We had a good meeting after the (Wolves) game in terms of how to manage the game much better, how not to let the opponent come back into the game and it’s still a work in progress obviously.
“We are still learning game management and trying to deal with difficult situations which occur in games.
“Hopefully we learn from it and do it much better, otherwise it could be a very tough season. It will be a tough season but can be much better in that sense.”
Van Dijk said even though, the defeat to Nottingham Forest excepted, the start to the campaign had been better than expected Slot was still working on getting his ideas across.
Hopefully we learn from it and do it much better, otherwise it could be a very tough season— Virgil van Dijk on improving game management
“We have a lot of meetings. A lot of video meetings so you get exactly shown what he wants from us, what we do well and what we don’t do well,” he added.
“You don’t want to be sloppy because when you are sloppy you can give chances away and that is something we have to learn.
“We still have things to improve. We are winning games and it is a good feeling that we can still improve, so we have to keep going.”
