It is not often that Liverpool only attempts two shots in an entire game, that Mohamed Salah has an off-day, or that the Reds must rely heavily on the brilliance of Alisson Becker to secure an unlikely result. That happened, though, against PSG.
Alisson was rightly the biggest talking point. The Brazilian broke a record for the number of saves a Liverpool goalkeeper has made in a single match and he put in a perfect display that included every aspect of elite-level shot-stopping.
While there was an element of good fortune to Liverpool taking the lead in the tie, there is someone else who deserves a great deal of credit for the result: Arne Slot. With his in-game tweaks, an unlikely draw was turned into a miraculous win.
The Liverpool head coach has the benefit of having lots of options from the sidelines, of course, but he has to use them effectively to make an impact on games. Here, he did just that.
So often under Jurgen Klopp, Harvey Elliott was a super sub. This season, it hasn’t really happened for the Liverpool number 19 — but then he got his big moment. It was a huge call for Slot to withdraw an underperforming Salah, who had got nothing out of PSG left-back Nuno Mendes. Under a minute after that change, though, Elliott fired home the winner.
Also coming off the bench in the second half were Darwin Nunez, who got the assist with a brilliant piece of hold-up play that was lacking in Diogo Jota’s time on the field; Curtis Jones, who added some much-needed composure in the center of the pitch; and Wataru Endo, who injected some bite and fire-fighting attributes behind him.
(Image: FRANCK FIFE/AFP via Getty Images)
Taking off Salah and Ryan Gravenberch and bringing on entirely different players in Elliott and Endo, Slot won the game for his team as much as Alisson did. And with more tight fixtures potentially to come in Europe, he might need to do it again.
“A big moment for him,” Slot said during the post-match press conference when he was asked about the match-winner, Elliott. “I can understand that he is sometimes frustrated by the playing time he gets because he is a good player.
“He showed at Liverpool already that he is a good player, but he is in competition for players that I hardly take off. So, Dominik Szoboszlai is always the one that just keeps on going — he also scores goals but he’s so important for us with all the running he does.
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“And yeah, Mo Salah I think is quite key for everyone as well. So, he has to do it with limited playing time but he just keeps on going. But it wasn’t only Harvey. It was also the one who assisted, Darwin, who came from a difficult two games, but was absolutely there again tonight. From the moment he came in, we were more of a threat than before.”
In the Premier League, while the Reds’ nearest challenger, Arsenal, struggles to find enough players to make up a forward line, Liverpool has several in reserve. And Cody Gakpo, who traveled to Paris but didn’t take part in the game because of a minor injury, will soon be added back into the mix again.
Elliott understandably took the credit for scoring the goal, but when Slot was asked about his substitutes, he rightly pointed to Nunez and the others too. The Reds almost have the league title wrapped up, so they might as well try for the Champions League. Slot’s super subs might have just made that considerably more likely.
