Arne Slot was pleased by the quality on display from his Liverpool squad during their 5-1 Carabao Cup victory over West Ham United on Wednesday night.
The Reds head coach opted to make nine changes for the tie at Anfield, with his players securing passage into the fourth round thanks to a double apiece from Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo alongside a Mohamed Salah strike.
West Ham had earlier taken the lead in L4 via a Jarell Quansah own goal, though Slot’s team battled back to earn the win and set up an away trip to Brighton & Hove Albion in the next stage of the competition.
You already start to laugh because you’re thinking for two months I only ask about new players! I constantly told you guys how many quality players we already had.
I think you all knew and that’s also what we showed in the last weeks and today again that we have many quality players. What pleased me most was that even if a lot of new players come in they don’t come in and try to have a good individual performance. They try to work really hard for the team. There was a lot of desire not to concede and as a result of that we had some good individual performances as well.
I think Diogo deserved it because he played a lot of good games for us already. If I’m correct he was only on the scoresheet in the first game against Ipswich. He’s been important for us in every single game he played but a striker also wants to score goals. I’m pleased for him that he scored two today although he played in a No.10 position. He scored two really good goals and Cody I think it was 10, 15 or 20 minutes before the end where he cleared the ball in his own 18-yard box and that is also what he brings to our game apart from scoring two.
If I see him in training and the way he hits the ball in and around the 18-yard box it is with incredible speed. So, I’m not surprised to see him scoring like this. Someone just told me he scored a similar one last season in this cup tie against West Ham. So, I’m not surprised to see him score; not in the way he did, but it’s not only about them scoring, it’s also about them defending in their own 18-yard box.
Rotate. I think we are trying to manage his minutes like the others in the best possible way, but we also try to prepare them during the week and during the first months of pre-season to prepare them for so many games in the Premier League. Sometimes there are small margins, sometimes you can be unlucky as well. If you saw what happened with Rodri, that is so, so unlucky for him. It’s trying to prepare them in the best possible way, but in the end you need a bit of luck as well. What the players can do is be as professional as possible, live in the best possible way for their career and I think that’s what they’ve done until now and what they are doing at the moment – and we, as a staff, try to prepare them in the best possible way to go without injuries through this period.
