Liverpool managed to turn a seemingly choppy first half into a smooth and controlled 2-0 win over newly promoted Ipswich Town, with head coach Arne Slot’s tenure as manager getting off to a positive start – managing to achieve something new LFC managers have failed to do in a long time – with a full three points in the bag.

Slot’s first important decision came early on, however, when he replaced Jarell Quansah with Ibrahima Konate early in the second half. This change provided a little more stability in defence and in turn weakened Ipswich’s attack. Here are Slot’s thoughts on this important decision from the post-match press conference:

“We as a team made a big change at half-time because we played very differently to the first half. I have to give credit to Ipswich too because I think they were aggressive, they weren’t afraid, they played one-on-one all over the pitch to defend us. Then it’s about winning the tackles and winning the second balls. I think they won more than we did and that’s why it was a totally even game in the first half. In the second half we won more tackles, we won more second balls and we played more balls back because when the other team takes the risk of playing one-on-one and you have players like Luis Diaz, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota you use them, play the balls back. We did that better in the second half and from then on gaps opened up and you could see how well and how well we could play in possession.”

It’s pretty clear that Slot had some clear assessments of what he felt was lacking in the team’s execution.

Slot was also asked about his assessment of Ryan Gravenberch at six and had this to say:

“We defend with 11 players, we don’t do that with a single player, so we have to help him as much as we help anyone else in the position he or anyone else plays. It’s not like just Virgil and Ibou or just Virgil and Jarell (Quansah) defend – the whole team has to do that. If we defend with 11, that will help Ryan a lot or whoever plays there. Last season Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) played there a lot and I think he has certain qualities that Ryan has as well. When you look at both players, you think first about the ball, about possession and that’s why we as a team have to make sure that whoever plays in that position is not too exposed. That’s what happened today because I think the team really helped to defend in the best way possible and that’s why Ryan performed well.”

There are a lot of interesting things to analyse, but it is clear that Slot has a very team-orientated approach that should feel familiar to fans and be in line with the club’s overall ethos.

So that’s three points secured. And as Slot mentioned in his comments, we’re all focused on Brentford now.