2 hours ago
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Arne Slot has dismissed Everton’s criticism of the amount of stoppage time in the Merseyside derby on Saturday, insisting three minutes was correct and Liverpool do not waste time – unlike many of their opponents.
David Moyes and Jack Grealish expressed frustration with the referee Darren England’s display during Liverpool’s 2-1 win at Anfield, with the Everton manager saying it was “very strange” that only three minutes were added to the second half. Grealish was booked after the final whistle for protesting against England’s decision to book Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall for taking a quick free-kick and also claimed Liverpool were trying to slow the game down when under pressure in the second half.
Slot has rejected that accusation, however, and said the additional time was correct for a half that featured one goal and three stoppages for substitutions, in the 61st minute, the 67th minute and the 86th minute. “A lot has been said about the added time against Everton but I would have loved to play 34 seconds more because we were in a five-v-two situation at that moment,” the Liverpool head coach said.
“Now that tells you, I think, all about the mentality we have, always wanting to score a goal. The three minutes were completely correct because there were only three moments where a substitution was made. There was no time-wasting because that’s not what we do and there was no treatment of injuries, one goal scored. Then you come to three [minutes]. Where in many other games when we need a goal, there’s a lot, a lot, a lot of time-wasting going on, I can tell you.”
Slot revealed immediately after the derby that Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté, Mohamed Salah, Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai would not feature in the Carabao Cup tie against Southampton on Tuesday as he manages their workloads. On Monday the Dutchman confirmed Liverpool will field “a completely changed lineup” to the derby in the third-round tie. Recent signings Alexander Isak, Giovanni Leoni and Giorgi Mamardashvili are expected to start.
“We can go through all of them – Wataru Endo and a few more,” Slot said. “These are the players that need a game and we’re happy that we have one. If we wouldn’t have had one, we probably would have arranged a friendly in this week for these players because they need to play games as well to keep them ready whenever we need them.
“We’ve used quite a lot in the last three games because we thought we needed to keep this energy throughout all the three games – but not all of them. And the few we haven’t used, it’s definitely the perfect moment for them to get playing time.”
Slot also confirmed Liverpool will pay tribute to Matt Beard on Tuesday after the death of the club’s former women’s manager. “It’s very important for us to pay tribute, for what he meant for this football club. This football club is not only the men’s team, it’s also the women’s team and he had an enormous impact on women’s football here with Liverpool,” Slot said. “But apart from that, it’s also his family that’s going through such a hard time at the moment.
“He did great things for this football club, for the women’s team, back-to-back league titles, came back to [the] new women’s team when they were playing one division below, so that tells you probably how much he loved the club as well. The Melwood staff and everyone that worked with him liked him so much – and that’s probably even a more important legacy to leave behind than the trophies you win.”
