Arne Slot laid into his players at halftime after they put in a sluggish performance against Southampton on Saturday, and warned Liverpool will have to up their energy levels against PSG next week.
The Reds went into the break a goal down at Anfield after Will Smallbone scored in stoppage time. The hosts turned it around in the second half as Darwin Nunez equalised before Mo Salah converted a couple of penalties to win 3-1.
While their performance in the opening 45 minutes was well below their standard, Slot was pleased with how they responded after the interval.
Arne Slot concerned by Liverpool energy levels ahead of PSG
“It’s a sign of a good team that you can win in different ways,” the Liverpool boss told BBC Match of the Day. “It was a poor performance first half – not only because of the way we played but also because of the energy we brought.
“The only good thing in the first 45 minutes was that they saved their energy and didn’t run at all!
“I know these players are capable of doing much, much better. That is what I expect this week. They were not the energy levels I am used to with these players.”
Read – Mo Salah admits Liverpool ‘slow and sloppy’ in Southampton win
Slot revealed that he had strong words for the squad in the dressing room at halftime before making a triple substitution, and felt it had the intended impact.
“In the end I had to make some hard decisions, maybe at half-time, to create a certain anger with the players,” he told Sky Sports.
“That triple substitution at the start of the second half seemed to reignite the team. The three that came in did really well. That’s the first thing, but I could see from the other eight a different attitude as well.
Slot continued: “I’m fully aware of the fact that if you play a season, you cannot play 38 times in the highest intensity or the best possible football you can play. So sometimes you have to find another way of winning a game.
“But the first half today is hopefully a warning sign because like I said, we’ve experienced it already in Paris, that the intensity, the way they play, was very high for us on that night. And if I compare it with the intensity we played today, it’s not one, two, three, four, five steps, it’s probably six or seven or eight steps down towards the intensity levels of Paris Saint-Germain.”
Liverpool host PSG at Anfield for the return leg of their last-16 tie in the Uefa Champions League having won the away leg 1-0 in Paris.
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