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Arne Slot: Liverpool’s new head coach passed Manchester United test easily


The tweaks in style invoked by Slot have been small but important, his intention to adopt a more controlled, pragmatic approach to game management already in evidence.

And this is best exemplified by comparing this Liverpool victory with their games at Old Trafford last season.

The Reds were overwhelmingly dominant before losing the FA Cup quarter-final 4-3 in the final seconds of extra time. The same was true when they needed a late penalty from Mohamed Salah to earn a 2-2 draw in the league.

They were prime examples of the wonderfully entertaining but occasionally chaotic strategy that brought Klopp such great success and so many wild encounters during his time at Anfield.

Here, Liverpool were ruthless and full of menace but always retained control, with not the slightest hint that this hapless Manchester United side would inflict the sort of sucker punches that floored them at Old Trafford last season.

Liverpool pressed United into submission, resulting in Casemiro twice coughing up possession in the build-up to Luis Diaz’s two goals in seven minutes just before half-time. The manner in which Alexis Mac Allister did the same to Kobbie Mainoo for Salah’s third after 56 minutes merely emphasised the point.

Give this Liverpool team an inch and they will take several miles, as United found to their cost so painfully.

The only cloud on Liverpool’s day came after the game when Salah cast serious doubt on his Anfield future with the clear inference that this may well be his final season with a club where he has become an icon.

“Nobody in the club has talked to me about contracts, so OK, I’ll play my last season and we’ll see at the end of the season,” he said. “It’s not up to me.”

If this is the case, and no-one has any reason to doubt Salah, it is a remarkable state of affairs, with the 32-year-old looking as fit and in form as at any time in his career. He has scored in each of Liverpool’s first three games, with his strike against United his 12th in 15 games against them.

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