Liverpool youngster James McConnell has thanked Arne Slot for showing faith in him, following an impressive performance against PSV Eindhoven.
The Reds may have lost 3-2 in the Netherlands on the Wednesday night, but they still finished top of the Champions League group.
McConnell was handed his first start of the season, and just his second for the club, but he produced a mature showing in midfield.
Speaking to LFCTV, the 20-year-old assessed a “really proud” night, despite Liverpool losing, thanking Slot for giving him minutes and believing in him.
“It was obviously a good experience,” McConnell said.
“It was very disappointing, the result, we thought we could have got something from the game, especially at half-time we should have been comfortably winning the game.
“But in the end we got punished and we went a man down in the last 10 minutes, so it was tough. But the lads put in a big shift.
“If you ask the lads, we shouldn’t have conceded all three goals really and we gave ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb in the second half when they made a lot of changes, and we had a lot of young lads on the bench. It was always going to be tough.
“The lads have done brilliantly to win the last seven games and I think we topped the group in the end. It’s a great experience to learn from.
“It was a really proud moment to start the game and I was really excited. The boss has put faith in a lot of young lads, thanks to the work the senior lads have done over the course of the season.
“I’m really grateful to the boss and you’ve just got to take the opportunity when it comes to you.”
McConnell was one of the bright sparks for Liverpool, playing with maturity and looking like a more seasoned professional than his years.
Slot ‘rules out’ loan move
His performance wasn’t lost on Slot, who admitted after the game that he doesn’t want to loan him out this month, seeing him as a good squad player instead.
“There’s definitely one of them that will not go on loan and I think you know which one I mean, James McConnell,” Slot explained.
“I wouldn’t say definitely, but I liked him a lot today – so maybe now the end result today is that it would be good for him to go somewhere and play.
“He was also one of our players who hadn’t played in the last six or seven months 90 minutes, because he was injured for a while, and he impressed me a lot today.”
While playing time is going to be hard to come by for McConnell between now and May, he showed against PSV that he can be a reliable option.
He played nine passes into the final third, per FotMob, which was the most of any Liverpool player, and his tally of three interceptions was also unrivalled among his teammates.
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