Liverpool FC has taken another step out of its crisis, and even Florian Wirtz can breathe a sigh of relief. However, Arne Slot was not only concerned about Alexander Isak’s injury during the 2-1 win against Tottenham.
Somehow, it was fitting for Florian Wirtz’s bumpy season so far. In his 16th appearance on Saturday, he recorded his first Premier League scoring point, but he was unable to celebrate it. Goal scorer Alexander Isak, who was tackled by Micky van den Ven as he took his shot, was so badly injured that the goal celebration had to be canceled. Instead, the record signing, who had only come on at half-time for the injured Conor Bradley, lay on the pitch in pain and eventually limped off the field supported by the coaching staff.
So did Liverpool FC pay dearly for their 2-1 away win at Tottenham Hotspur? Coach Arne Slot had “no news” at his post-match press conference, but he suspected the worst. “When a player doesn’t even try to come back onto the field, it’s usually not a good sign.”
Slot finds Liverpool’s loss of control “unbelievable”
Slot was nevertheless pleased with the goal, which came after Wirtz Isak had made perfect use of a ball won by his teammates. “Good finish, good pass,” praised the coach, knowing that the assist provider in particular had waited a long time for this moment, but had also worked hard for it. 104 touches with a pass completion rate of 91 percent – the second highest after Curtis Jones (116) – showed how well the former Leverkusen player was integrated. The Liverpool fans voted him their “Man of the Match” afterwards. However, in the final stages, even Wirtz was unable to bring the necessary calm to his team. When Spurs, down to ten men (red card for Xavi, 33′), suddenly reduced the deficit to 1-2 (Richarlison, 83′), the champions found themselves in trouble and were no less shaky when Tottenham captain Cristian Romero was shown a second yellow card (90’+3).
In the eleven minutes of added time, “I think they had 95 percent of the ball,” Slot marveled. “Whenever we had it, we kicked it away or threw it away. It was unbelievable that we didn’t manage to hold onto it longer. It looked like we were nine and they were eleven, it was attack after attack after attack.”
After Isak, Frimpong also substituted in and out
In the midst of this chaos, Slot not only substituted Wirtz, but also Jeremie Frimpong, who had only come on for Isak after an hour and was celebrating his comeback after around two months out with injury. The reason: when his compatriot was bleeding from the lip, he preferred to take him off the field because he would not have been allowed to return to the game immediately after receiving treatment on the pitch. “I didn’t want to be a man down for 30 seconds,” Slot explained, which said everything about Liverpool’s frantic finish.
Because this was not penalized, the Reds are level on points with fourth-placed Chelsea over Christmas and seem to have turned the momentum back in their favor with their third competitive win in a row. “I said it last week: the players are getting better, the team is getting better,” Slot said with relief. “It wasn’t perfect today, but I can see them developing in a direction that I like.”
The chances of following up after the holidays are not bad: With Wolverhampton (H, December 27), Leeds (H, January 1), and Fulham (A, January 4), there are now three supposedly easy tasks ahead before the summit meeting at Arsenal FC on January 8.