The Liverpool congregation adores a folk hero and, if this victory is followed by the same at Manchester United next Sunday to make it three consecutive wins, Arne Slot will have made the best of starts to become its latest.
The midfield and defence require the Dutchman’s attention, as each could be too open against Brentford on Sunday but the attack is exciting – and lethal, as this crowd demands of its storied side.
On the hour here came a sequence of prime Slot-ball which had the Anfield faithful cooing. A becalmed Mohamed Salah awoke and drove the ball into Brentford’s area: it was laid off to Alexis Mac Allister and the cutest of passes teed up the on-running Egyptian, who went close to adding to Luis Díaz’s opener. Moments after, Liverpool’s No 7 had Mark Flekken diving low and left to repel what would have been the Colombian’s second.
Diogo Jota created Díaz’s strike and as Slot’s new charges upped the tempo a Nathan Collins block this time did the business for Brentford, as had a post, previously, from a Trent Alexander-Arnold corner.
Next, though, came Salah’s second in two games, Díaz the provider, his chip to the lurking forward presaging a finish that extinguished Flekken as a factor. The grin from the adored No 11 was reflected by the joy that surged through Slot, who cannot have hoped for a better first home game in charge.
Before the game he spoke of the elements “I was not so happy about” in last week’s 2-0 win at Ipswich and this outing was studded, too, with the same vulnerability of that day. A flash of how Brentford could prey on this came when Yoane Wissa ran clear along Alexander-Arnold’s right-back corridor. Dominik Szoboszlai chased the forward, who left his supposed tracker trailing, and if a cross aimed for striker partner Bryan Mbeumo was better directed, Brentford would have taken the lead.
Wissa offered a repeat, except this time from Andy Robertson’s first Liverpool corner. The No 11 headed the ball out of the danger zone, chased and collected it, and raced away along a right-hand channel. Slot’s men escaped but Thomas Frank’s were not to, when Mathias Jensen delivered their opening corner.
A strong Ibrahima Konaté header out was followed by a simple yet cute break. Jota took the ball, waited, then, with killer timing, released Díaz whose crosswise run curved him from the defender before a left-foot arrow beat Flekken to the No 1’s right.
A dream home start for the Slot project, nearly became two as now Díaz fed Jota and Flekken had to beat away the No9’s effort at close range. Salah, Szoboszlai, Alexander-Arnold, Díaz and Jota were percussive in their passing and movement, the leads in a fast and furious Liverpool display their visitors could hardly handle.
Christian Nørgaard reached for the agricultural playbook to do so when upending Díaz. It drew sarcastic home cheers, yet when the free-kick was left to a brains trust and Alexander-Arnold’s curled execution did not trouble Flekken.
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With his newly cropped hair, Salah appears markedly younger, though the strong-arm with which he downed Jensen was an old-school foul he came close to regretting. The delivery from the subsequent free-kick came flighted into Liverpool’s area where Nørgaard, unchallenged, failed to hit the target with his head from close range.
This chance told of how Liverpool’s supremacy had ebbed. And though they pummelled Brentford again via Alexander-Arnold, whose cut inside presaged a left-foot rocket that deflected for a corner, this yielded nothing, and Keane Lewis-Potter was soon hitting low into Alisson’s midriff.
At the break Slot surely ordered Liverpool to complement the forward zest with more watchfulness to stop Brentford’s forays. The first element remained. Moments into the second half, a misdirected Jota overhead dropped on to Robertson’s head but at inches out he failed to register. The need to stiffen up the rearguard act remained, though.
A Mbeumo shot that went for a corner was the product of Liverpool’s openness and further danger came from a short Bees corner that Slot’s men scrambled to repel.
But soon would come Liverpool’s second before which, in a number of raids down his right flank, Alexander-Arnold, pushed Frank’s men back. The best of these featured a flip to Jota who, perhaps distracted, was wasteful.
It mattered not. The bottom line is the result, which came before a record league attendance of 61,276 and in front of the owner, John W Henry, who flew in specially from Boston for Slot’s inaugural act on the Anfield turf.