Arne Slot confirmed that the decision to take off Jarell Quansah before the second half was a tactical one rather than relating to any potential injury fears.
The former Feyenoord boss pointed to the duels his Liverpool side was failing to win across the pitch, with Ibrahima Konate’s physicality and dominance in the air proving a welcome addition in the second 45.
“First thing I said is we don’t have to speak about tactics if we lose so many duels and that was what we did,” the Dutchman spoke on TNT Sports.
“Not that Jarell [Quansah] lost every duel – many of us lost too many duels. But I think we needed Ibou Konate to win these long balls in the air from their No.9.
“So that helped, gave us control. But they put so much energy in the first-half, they had to keep on running, keep on fighting. They were playing all over the pitch one-v-one and I didn’t think they could keep up with that tempo in the second half.”
The Merseysiders’ 2-0 win over the Blues saw the former temporarily leapfrog Manchester United to the league summit.
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The Reds are set to next take on Brentford at Anfield on Sunday August 25.
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Arne Slot’s substitution was justified
To be fair, we didn’t think Quansah had a terrible first half in Suffolk – quite the opposite in fact, with our Academy graduate proving pivotal in keeping the scoreline level.
That said, given the turnaround in performance that followed, it would appear that our new head coach was more than justified in making an early change.
The 21-year-old, for the record, had won 50% of his duels (including 50% of aerial duels) in the first half (eight contested). Konate, however, improved on this with 4/5 (including 75% of his aerial duels) duels won, according to Sofascore.
An impressive show of initiative from Slot that will be more than welcomed over the course of the 2024/25 campaign!
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