Liverpool head coach Arne Slot gave his team a dressing down in the changing room at half-time but it had the desired effect as they came from behind to beat Southampton 3-1.
Trailing to Will Smallbone’s added-time goal after a misunderstanding between Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson Becker, Slot – who was watching from the Main Stand as he was serving the last game of his touchline suspension – moved quickly to rectify the situation.
Having issued his players with an order to increase the tempo, he made a triple substitution with Harvey Elliott, Andy Robertson and Alexis Mac Allister coming on and immediately changing the dynamic.
Within the space of five minutes, Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah, with the first of two penalties, had turned things around as the Premier League leaders stretched their advantage at the top to 16 points.
Salah, who blasted home his second from the spot in the 88th minute, said in a post-match television interview Slot’s “head was going for us”.
“I didn’t give them compliments at half-time, I can tell you,” said the Liverpool head coach.
“Maybe I can tell you it was because I was sitting up there instead of on the line. When you watch a game from there you always feel that ‘Ah, even I can play in this game’ but when you are on the line, there is more tempo.
“I don’t think I was wrong if I said at half-time that the energy levels were far, far, far too low.
“That had to change and that is why we made three substitutions, apart from energy to bring in quality.
“Nine out of 10 times when you take three out, the other eight are like, something else should happen.
“That was the only thing I could come up with at half-time to create something different for the second half.”
Wednesday’s midweek exertions against Paris St Germain obviously took their toll but Slot said he was not concerned by the apparent European hangover.
“I know these players can come up with completely different energy levels than they did in the first half,” he added.
“It was the first time this season I saw this tempo.
“When I look at the game against PSG, we have to go one step up in terms of intensity and compared to the game today, we need to go five, six, seven steps up in terms of intensity (in the Champions League second leg on Tuesday) if we want to have any chance of reaching the next round.”
Southampton boss Ivan Juric was satisfied with the effort his bottom-of-the-table side put in.
“They reacted really well. We had really good moments of the first half,” he said. “I think the (first) penalty was not a penalty and that changed the match. This cannot be a penalty ever.
“I’m sorry it happened because it was 1-1 and it changed the match a little bit. We have lots of young players who want to grow up and improve.
“We can lose but we have to fight like we fought today.”
