LIVERPOOL, England: Arne Slot’s comfortable start to life as Liverpool manager continued when his new team won 2-0 over Brentford in the English Premier League (EPL) action early this morning.
Liverpool dominated from the start, scoring a superb goal following a quick counter-attack when Luis Diaz fired into the corner for his first goal of the season after 13 minutes.
Brentford responded well, going close to scoring with two close-range headers in each half, but Mohamed Salah ended the visitors’ hopes of picking up a point from their trip to Anfield with a second 20 minutes from time.
Slot, the Dutch manager, is now 2-0 after two games as he takes on the difficult task of replacing Jurgen Klopp as Liverpool boss, with a testy trip to Manchester United to come.
“The time with Jurgen was amazing and the time with the new boss was fun and he has his own style to practice,” Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports.
“We worked hard on a few things and you can see a lot with or without the ball which gives the team confidence.
“We have to, I’m not saying forget about the Jurgen period, but it’s in the past and we’ve had a wonderful time and now it’s time for a new boss to spark new success.
“I think if we were calmer we might have had more space but it’s something we’re still working on. It’s a good time and hopefully we can improve and chase whatever trophies.”
Before yesterday, no Liverpool boss since Graeme Souness in 1991 had won their first two league games in charge.
Brentford, without star striker Ivan Toney in the squad again as speculation over his future mounts, were able to challenge but could not deal with the pressure before the break.
Liverpool stepped up their attack after the break and deserved a second goal, with Salah adding to his opening-day tally at Ipswich Town with another impressive goal to secure victory.
Salah is now fifth in Liverpool’s all-time leading scorers list at Anfield in all competitions with 118 goals, surpassing Robbie Fowler as he once again looks set to steer the Reds to success.
“We know Liverpool are a good team,” said Brentford boss Thomas Frank.
“For me Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool are three teams that are a little above each other, among the best teams in Europe.
“We expected more, we came here to try to win, but we couldn’t do it.”