Arne Slot praises Liverpool’s defense after West Ham’s defeat

Arne Slot paid tribute to his defenders after Liverpool’s latest win over West Ham United.

The Reds hammered the Hammers 5-0 at the London Stadium on Sunday night thanks to goals from Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah.

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The latter received high praise after a superb performance in which he also provided excellent assists.

Salah now leads the Premier League in both goals (17) and assists (13) this season, three times ahead of any other player in each category.

However, Slot does not thank Salah for this latest victory.

Instead, it is a Liverpool defense — which included an excellent performance from reserve Jarell Quansah, who replaced the injured Joe Gomez in the 37th minute — that held their eighth clean sheet of the season and no team managed more.

“(Clean matches) is one of the reasons why you win a lot. If you have to score two, three or four goals every time, it’s difficult, at the moment yes, but it’s not sustainable in the long term. Sometimes you need to win by keeping a clean sheet and getting one or two goals,” Slot said of a Liverpool defense that has conceded just 17 goals in 18 Premier League games this season (via BBC Sport).

“In the end, we didn’t need our clean sheet, but that’s always good for the confidence of the back line and the goalkeeper.

“If a player sprints and asks to come out, we know it’s a hamstring and it won’t take a day or two to fix. On a positive note, Jarrell Quansah, who replaced Joe (Gomez), had an incredible game. It shows how important the team is.”

Arne Slot admits Liverpool were lucky to beat West Ham

Of course, on another day, West Ham could have complicated this game, hitting the crossbar three times.

Moreover, Liverpool’s 6-3 win over Spurs is still fresh in the memory, conceding two quick goals after leading 5-1.

Sunday’s shutout ended a run of five games without a home game, and Liverpool are now used to wowing teams with their attacking prowess.

So even with a strong defensive display, Slott knows his side have been a bit lucky.

“Yes (a lot of goals), but also a lot of chances. It was 3-0 at halftime, but soon after that we could have scored three,” added the Dutchman.

On the other hand, it’s good that they didn’t go in every chance, they had two or three, one hit the post and one hit the crossbar. Against Leicester they had one chance and scored. We were a little lucky that we didn’t score in the first few minutes, but we were also lucky that at 1:0 Kudus hit the post.”