Arne Slot believes Liverpool’s performance in Wednesday’s Merseyside derby showed his table-topping players are mentally stronger than last year.
Liverpool were far from their best in the cauldron-like atmosphere as Goodison Park hosted its final Merseyside derby, and were denied victory when James Tarkowski struck eight minutes into time added on to earn Everton a 2-2 draw amid chaotic scenes.
Slot’s immediate reaction led to him being shown a red card after the final whistle but, having taken time to reflect on the game, the Dutchman pointed to the positives.
“I think the players…really stood up in a positive way,” he said. “Mentally being so strong in those circumstances if you don’t play your best game.
“Part of our game plan was, of course, to prevent them from playing so many balls into our box but it’s difficult to prevent that if you concede 20 free-kicks.
“Then you just have to act (on) what is their strongest asset maybe, playing the balls in with all these centre-backs and full-backs coming up.
“And apart from the first goal we conceded from a free-kick, I think we defended that really well.
“Players showed that they are more than 11 quality individuals that can play together in ball possession so well. They also showed they have great mentality again in, what I’ve experienced until now, the most difficult circumstances we played until now.”
Slot believes that mental strength will help Liverpool as they seek a 20th top-flight season. Going into the weekend they sit seven points clear of Arsenal with 14 games to go.
“Of course we would’ve loved to go nine points (clear) but we take a lot of positives from the game as well, not football-wise (because) we didn’t play our best game in terms of ball possession,” he added.
“But the players stood up, in my opinion, because I did watch the game back last season (a 2-0 defeat at Goodison in April). We were mentally much stronger than last season, we went 1-0 down and came back by leading the game until 97 minutes with 2-1.”
Attention now turns to Sunday’s visit of Wolves, a side Liverpool beat 2-1 at Molineux in September.
That result came in the middle of what became an 11-game winless start to the Premier League season for Wolves, who sacked Gary O’Neil in December and brought in Vitor Pereira.
Wolves’ form has remained patchy, but they have won their past two games, beating Aston Villa before winning at Blackburn in the FA Cup.
“The second half of the season is always more difficult than the first half for many reasons,” Slot said.
“Some teams bring new players in, some teams (have been) playing longer together so they’re playing better together, some teams bring new managers in, like Everton and (David Moyes) at Everton is doing a great job and the one from Wolves has made them better as well.
“I said that Gary O’Neil has been very unlucky because I think he deserved much more points than he got for several reasons.
“But the new manager that came in has done a very good job, got some positive results in.
“So, it’s going to be a challenge again on Sunday but that is normal (in the) last part of the season in the best league of the world.
“You can’t expect to go out there and have an easy win. It’s always going to be a tough one but the players have shown all season they’re ready for tough games.”
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