Gary Neville Podcast: Clinical and brutal Arne Slot | Same story at Man Utd? | Football news

Arne Slot showed “clinical and brutal” form when replacing Jarell Quansah in Liverpool’s win over Ipswich, according to Gary Neville.

Goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah gave Arne Slot an easy time at Ipswich on his Liverpool debut, but the new manager played his part in the 2-0 victory with a ruthless half-time substitution.

Slot saw a problem and replaced Quansah with Ibrahima Konate straight away at half-time. It was not an injury substitution, but purely tactical and it laid the foundation for Liverpool to dominate Ipswich after the break.

On the last Gary Neville podcast, he said: “Ipswich played Liverpool for an hour and had a few moments. You have to have one if you want to play against the big boys. But then all of a sudden you realise how good that player is.

“It just came from the right with Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah, and Leif Davis from Ipswich just heard about the Premier League.

“The amount of times Alexander-Arnold and Salah have played together now for hundreds of games, the amount of success they’ve had on the right with Trent’s passing and Salah’s movement.

“You really saw quality with that last ball when he just played it into him. It’s just something you get to deal with, you get to see teams that don’t have to be at their best but can produce world-class moments with world-class players.

“And that’s what Ipswich thought and Liverpool were better in the second half. I thought Arne Slot was quite tough on Jarrell Quansah. Substituting someone at half-time is a big thing and I don’t think managers do that lightly. He was quite blunt in the way he reacted, there was no restraint whatsoever.

“So I think there’s an element of him that’s quite clinical and brutal, he reacted to the game and he felt they had to win the duels, that was his main thinking behind the decision. It worked, you have to say, Liverpool were much better in the second half and it was a good win for them.”

Same old story for Man Utd

A late goal from summer signing Joshua Zirkzee gave Manchester United a nerve-shredding 1-0 win over Fulham in the Premier League season opener on Friday. But did Erik ten Hag’s side show signs of going a step further than last season?

Neville gave his verdict on United, with the third season of the Ten Hag era looking set to be decisive.

“If you think about it, it’s the same story. Winning was very important, they’re still trying to find the right balance in the team, they’ve got new players – they changed the central defensive duo again in the game, which is a bit worrying – Erik ten Hag said it was just a precaution with Harry Maguire and it wasn’t an injury, but it’s something they just have to keep an eye on and try to keep the players fit,” Neville said.

“I don’t think we can sit here in October and Ten Hag is talking about excuses and injuries, because that can’t happen again this year. If you have injuries in one season, you can consider that unfortunate, but if you have injuries in a second season, it’s not unfortunate. It’s what you are, it’s your medical staff, preparation, sports scientists, all those things come into question when you have repeated injuries.

“They need to make sure they get the players on the pitch, but they still have a long way to go. But it was a good start for them and Joshua Zirkzee, considering they played without a striker in that game.”