Arne Slot wants Liverpool to find some consistency after they edged closer to the top four with a 1-0 win at Sunderland.
Following a disappointing defeat to Manchester City on Sunday, the Reds responded with a hard-fought victory which ended the Black Cats’ unbeaten run of 12 Premier League games at the Stadium of Light this season.
Florian Wirtz put the post in the first half, but Liverpool eventually struck after the break when Mohamed Salah’s corner was flicked on by Virgil van Dijk, with the ball bouncing off Habib Diarra’s head and in at the back post.
The win moves Liverpool three points away from the top four and two points behind fifth-placed Chelsea, but Slot was pleased to see his side capitalise from a set-piece goal as they target the Champions League spots.
He said: “We’ve shown that response so many times already this season. Now it’s about the consistency and the results.
“It’s not a coincidence that we win here tonight or that we won our games because we’re usually the better team on the pitch.
“It’s more surprising to see that from all the times we were the better team we didn’t make wins, but actually today you could see the reason why.
“If you create so many chances and also moments where we could have four versus three situations, three versus two situations, and that should with the quality we have – and that will by the way – leads to us scoring more goals.
“In the end we needed a set piece to score and we usually have against these teams set pieces, but we usually, people at Liverpool will tell you, don’t score from a set piece.
“Tonight we did and that’s the biggest difference between Burnley at home, I can come up with Leeds away, Leeds at home, all these games where we’ve dropped points.”
The Liverpool boss also revealed he is expecting Wataru Endo to be sidelined for a period of time after the full-back was carried off on a stretcher during the second half following an awkward landing, with Joe Gomez coming on to replace him.
Speaking about the injury, Slot said: “It is a serious one. How serious we don’t know yet because then of course he has to be assessed tomorrow, but it doesn’t look good.
“It’s his foot, but if it’s his ankle or his foot that is what we have to assess tomorrow, but I assume that he will be out for a long time. What is long, that is difficult to say this moment.”
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris believes small margins defined the game as they drop to 11th in the table.
Despite a solid defensive effort throughout, the Black Cats endured their eighth league loss of the campaign.
Le Bris said: “They were good, mature, smart, agile. Many good players with experience.
“The first half was a bit tough because we didn’t find the right position to be close to duel them. We sat, we wasted a bit of energy during this part and with the ball it was difficult.
“We tried, it was a bit better during the second half, but they scored on set pieces. Small margins defined this kind of game.”
