Arne Slot criticized his Liverpool players despite maintaining their perfect Champions League record, saying they were “outplayed so easily”.

Liverpool returned to action in their first game in a week, defeating Girona unconvincingly with a second-half penalty from Mo Salah.

It was a performance that left something to be desired as Girona were perhaps the better team until the goal after an hour and head coach Slot was only impressed by one player.

Alisson returned to the starting lineup after more than two months out and played a crucial role in keeping Girona at bay when they were particularly dangerous in the first half.

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“We have an incredible goalkeeper. I said jokingly that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he was to give him so much work,” said Slot.

“He showed that he is probably one of the best – in my opinion the best goalkeeper – in the world.

“Let’s hope he can continue to deliver these performances and even more so that he stays fit.”

Still, it felt a bit hard to drop Caoimhin Kelleher, who will surely leave Liverpool next year along with a teammate.

Regarding the overall game, Slot added: “If you ask me after all six games, I am really happy with all the results. I’m very happy with five games and the way we played. I’m anything but happy with the performance tonight.”

When pressed to elaborate on what made him so dissatisfied about the exhibition, he replied: “A lot. Two things in particular.

“When you play against a team that has such a good idea of ​​football and knows how to get the ball out from the back, like some other teams we’ve played recently like City or Real Madrid, then you have to be so intense be if you want.” make it difficult for them.

“But if you wait a few seconds every time and then put pressure on it, it’s so easy to get outplayed because this team can give you problems and they showed that throughout the Champions League season, with the exception of the away game at PSV Eindhoven .” .

“I almost feel sorry for them because they deserve so much more this season than the three points they have now.

“And every time we lost the ball we weren’t aggressive enough, almost every time they just went all the way to the goal.

“We barely had control of the game, maybe the second half was better – I’m trying to think positively.”

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