Liverpool manager Arne Slot admits he expected his side to be more dominant after Tottenham Hotspur were reduced to nine men in their Premier League match.
The Anfield side’s evening should have been a lot more comfortable having had a man superiority for almost an hour and a two-man superiority for the final minutes but they still required backs to the wall defending late on as Tottenham pushed for an equaliser.
Having gone 2-0 up, Slot watched on as Spurs hit back via Richarlison and his team then shrank under the pressure.
“I thought it would mean it would be easier, but in reality it wasn’t,” he said, according to Sky Sports.
“I thought against nine we would be able to keep them away from goal but it looked like were down to nine and they had 11.
“We are picking up points and that’s the main thing.”
While Spurs manager Thomas Frank will now have to ask why his team was so ill-disciplined, Slot was not without his own behaviour problems after he subbed Jeremie Frimpong despite the former Bayern Leverkusen player having already been a substitute himself.
Asked why he did that, Slot said he could not trust the player to not get sent off after losing his head.
“Jeremie has no [injury] problem,” Slot explained. “I didn’t want to go down to 10 men for 30 seconds. I adapted to that. I knew there wasn’t long to play.”
Slot also has a fresh injury concern after Alexander Isak was sliced down by Micky van de Ven as he scored the opening goal. The Swede, who has now scored two Premier League goals for Liverpool, was forced to leave the field after the goal.
“I don’t have any news about him,” Slot said of Isak. “If a player scores and then gets injured and doesn’t try to come back that’s usually not a good thing. But I can’t say any more than that. Let’s hope he’s back with us soon.
“It’s good thing he scored, assisted by Florian Wirtz.
“The second [red card] I haven’t seen. I don’t know what happened why he got the second yellow.
“The first one, I don’t think he had any intention to do it, but it was from behind, the height on the calf, I think these fouls are a red card. I’ve seen a few times this season against us when it wasn’t.”
