‘It was luck’ – Arne Slot admits he enjoyed one bit of good fortune in Liverpool’s draw v Forest
Arne Slot modestly admitted that he enjoyed a significant stroke of ‘luck’ in Liverpool’s 1-1 draw away to Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night.
The Reds came from behind to salvage a point thanks to Diogo Jota’s equaliser in the 66th minute as he headed to the net from a Kostas Tsimikas corner kick.
Those were the first touches of the ball for both of those players, who just seconds earlier had been brought on as substitutes; and while the Greek left-back was a like-for-like replacement for Andy Robertson, the LFC boss rolled the dice by bringing on the Portuguese winger and withdrawing centre-back Ibrahima Konate.
Slot: Impact substitution was ‘luck’
Slot was asked after the match whether he regarded that bold double substitution as a stroke of genius, but he acknowledged that the immediacy of the equaliser – and the two players involved in it – carried plenty of good fortune.
The Liverpool head coach said (via BBC Sport): “If it had been open play, then people could maybe say it was a tactical masterclass, but it was a set-piece so I don’t think I deserve any credit.
“It was a substitution where we brought an attacker on for a defender and the fact it immediately led to a goal, you could say it was luck.”
Slot rewarded for bold gamble
Although Slot also admitted that a set-piece goal wasn’t something he ‘had in mind’ when he brought on Jota for Konate, he insisted that the substitution was for tactical reasons and not any fitness or injury concerns about the Frenchman.
It was a bold call by the Reds boss given the threat that Forest carried on the counterattack, but it paid instant dividends, and he deserves huge credit for having the cojones to make a decision which could easily have blown up in his face horrendously.
It’s not as if Liverpool are lethal from corner kicks, either – it was only their third set-piece goal in the top flight all season, the third-lowest tally of any team in the Premier League (WhoScored), so the Dutchman was certainly putting his neck on the line with the changes that he made, and when he made them.
Jota didn’t exactly disappear after his instant equaliser, either. He ended the night with three shots on target, the most of any LFC player (Sofascore), and forced an excellent save from Matz Sels, with his introduction adding a far greater impetus to the visitors’ attack.
As the Reds pushed for a winner, they left themselves highly vulnerable to a counterattack with Konate off the pitch, but Slot rolled the dice and his numbers came up. The impact of that double substitution was more than just ‘luck’.
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