‘Absolutely incensed’ – Why Arne Slot lost his temper at 12-pass Liverpool ace on Wednesday night
Arne Slot was seen reading the riot act to one Liverpool player during the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg defeat to Tottenham on Wednesday night.
The Dutchman was on the losing side for just the second time as the Reds’ head coach, with the unbeaten run lasting for almost four months until his team came undone in north London courtesy of a controversial late winner from Lucas Bergvall.
Notwithstanding the fact that the Swedish midfielder ought to have been shown a second yellow card just before he netted the winning goal, it was another subpar performance from the visitors after the disappointing draw at home to Manchester United last weekend.
Slot brought Diogo Jota into his starting line-up for the first time since October, but the 28-year-old was unusually subdued, and at one point in the match he enraged his boss.
Slot ‘incensed’ at Jota
As observed by Ryan Taylor for The Mirror, Liverpool’s number 20 spurned an inviting opportunity for his team when overhitting an attempted first-time pass towards Kostas Tsimikas, with the ball sailing harmlessly out of play for a goal kick.
That sloppy execution left the head coach ‘absolutely incensed’ as he flung his arms skyward in frustration before continuing to vent towards his coaching staff.
It was noted that the outburst seemed to get through to the Portuguese forward, who ‘then livened up’ and took better care of the ball when he had it.
Jota’s quiet night summed up Liverpool as a whole
Like his team as a whole, Jota was strangely quiet against an injury-ravaged Tottenham side, earning a lowly 5/10 in the Liverpool Echo‘s post-match player ratings.
As per Sofascore, he completed just 12 passes during his hour on the pitch and failed to record a shot on target, while he lost the ball 11 times from his 30 touches and was dribbled past once. On the credit side, though, he won the joint-most duels of any Reds player with seven (matched only by Tsimikas).
With Mo Salah, Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz all in impressive form this season, last night’s match represented an opportunity for the 28-year-old to make his case to Slot for further starts, but unfortunately he fell short of his usual standards.
He should still be in the line-up for the FA Cup clash against Accrington Stanley on Saturday, though, and a goal or two in that game would set him up nicely for our return to Premier League action next week.
Darwin Nunez’s suspension for the trip to Nottingham Forest means that Jota will almost certainly feature at some point at the City Ground, and with the Garibaldi now just six points behind us in the table, a reversion to the clinical Diogo that we know and love would be most welcome in that fixture.
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