Arne Slot was glad to witness his Liverpool team defeat Manchester United 3-0 on Saturday night, but he wasn’t entirely happy with the performance.
Fabio Carvalho, Curtis Jones, and Kostas Tsimikas netted the goals in the significant win for the Reds in Columbia, South Carolina.
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This victory marked three consecutive wins in pre-season for the new Liverpool manager, following triumphs over Real Betis and Arsenal.
It’s a promising beginning for the Dutchman after taking over from Jurgen Klopp, yet he desires more and was dissatisfied with how many opportunities his side allowed the Red Devils on Saturday.
Speaking about his satisfaction with many aspects of his team’s game against United, Slot commented: ‘Yes, I was – but not with all of them.’
‘We are very happy with the result; we scored some really nice goals. But I don’t think we had enough control over the game because United were threatening us more than a few times. It’s a 3-0 win, but the score could have been different tonight as well.’
Regarding the tour of the States overall, the new manager remarked: ‘Very positive, I think. Of course, the results, that’s where everybody is looking at. But players stayed fit, and they are able to perform in the way we want, so [a] high-intensity game.
‘We saw some great goals during this tour, some great build-up situations, and I see them working really, really hard not to concede. Like I said, today I think we gave away too many chances; United deserved more than a 3-0 loss. But it’s also our quality that we do score our own chances.’
The Reds now head back home with one more pre-season friendly against Sevilla at Anfield on Sunday, 11 August, before kicking off their Premier League campaign at Ipswich six days later.
Slot is eager to integrate the remaining members of his squad who are yet to join in after holidays, with the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, and Darwin Nunez still to be involved.
However, the Reds manager was still contemplating the opportunities his side gave up against Erik ten Hag’s team.
‘A lot of new players come in – I think seven, eight, or nine maybe. Not new, but they come back from their holiday,’ he said. ‘So it’s interesting to see how these players fit into the team and implement them as soon as we can.
‘We need to work hard in the upcoming two weeks to be ready for Ipswich because there are a lot of positives to take from today but also, like I just said, we gave away too many chances.’
