The Liverpool manager is pleased with Arsenal’s performance and has admitted he regretted his comments after Darwin Nunes scored a stunning goal against Bournemouth.
Nunes made his first start of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Anfield and scored a stunning goal with a curling left-footed effort.
The number 9 has been a strong performer, and he seems to have taken the slot’s advice to heart that he contributes as much without the ball as in the box.
But in his post-match press conference, the manager revealed the immediate reaction Nunes had when he lined up to score – something many fans have experienced over the past two years.
“When he shot me, my first thought was, ‘Why are you shooting me?'” Slot told reporters.
“I wanted to say, ‘Why don’t you keep dribbling?’ Because he had the ball free and the defender was on the ground.
“But a few seconds later I saw the ball go out of the goal.
“I thought, ‘Okay, maybe you’re a better football player than I was.’ He made a good choice!”
Slot bowed to Nunez’s better judgment at the moment, but it was vital the Uruguayan continued to follow Nunez’s instructions if he was to keep his place.
Ahead of Saturday’s game, Slot saw Diogo Jota as the more natural “9 1/2” while Nunez was more of a “target man”, but the latter showed on Saturday that he was comfortable dropping deep and pressing high.
“I noticed that, too,” he said, when asked specifically about Nunes’ work rate.
“Of course. I use a striker because he likes to score goals, and I use a winger because he likes to provide assists or score goals.
“If you want to win the game, you have to score goals.
“But keeping clean sheets also helps. I just talked about the lead-up to the two goals (Luis Dias), Ibu was involved in that, but keeping clean sheets also helped Darwin.
“So first of all, they had to work really hard for the team, and at the beginning of the season it was Moy who made the difference with Lucho, then Cody, and Diogo who was involved in the goals.
“Today it was Lucho and Darwin. That’s all we wanted to see.”
As Slot points out, the main role of Liverpool’s central striker is to score goals and Nunes would be a huge help if he could score on his first start.
The Dutchman’s aim is to achieve this consistently and he hinted that he could be given the chance to build on that momentum against West Ham on Wednesday night.
“I think consistency comes down to two things: speed of work and team performance,” Slot explained.
“If team performance is inconsistent, individual performance is unlikely to be consistent either.
“To be consistent, you have to build habits every day, on the training pitch and in games. Consistency comes as you build habits.
“That’s what we try to do every day and he had a good game today and maybe he can do it again on Wednesday, but we’ll wait and see.”
Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth
