Arne Slot has disclosed that the thought of substituting Darwin Nunez at halftime during Liverpool’s 3-1 triumph against Southampton didn’t cross his mind.
The Uruguayan forward received a booking just before the interval, with Liverpool behind 1-0 following an incident with Kyle Walker-Peters. Despite VAR reviewing the decision, they chose not to escalate the yellow card to a red.
At half-time, Slot made three changes, pulling off the also-booked Kostas Tsimikas, yet he decided against swapping out Nunez. Nunez would go on to put Liverpool on level terms and later drew the foul for the penalty which Mohamed Salah converted to give the Reds the lead.
While Slot has previously acted to replace players at risk of being sent off, he explained his rationale for sticking with Nunez.
“In the end I took him off because he was on yellow but I always hate the idea that if we need to score goals, to take off someone who can score a goal,” Slot remarked. “That’s why it wasn’t in my mind to take him off because I was already planning on after these three.
“If we don’t score a goal, Jots (Diogo Jota) needs to come in and we have to go even more offensive. With Cody (Cody Gakpo) being out, it wasn’t like we have that many attacking options left. So that is why I took a certain risk of keeping him on. A number nine who is on a yellow is different to Kostas. I took Kostas out for that reason, because he was on yellow.
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“Second of all, of course I know Robbo (Andy Robertson) always creates something with his energy and with his mentality. Not only the team but also with the fans. And there is a reason why Macca (Alexis Mac Allister) is a World Cup winner. Because he always shows up when you need in terms of mentality, and that is definitely what he brought in the second half.”
Slot didn’t shy away from praising Nunez for his improved work-rate, despite having recently criticized the forward for his lackluster performances as a substitute against Wolverhampton Wanderers and Aston Villa.
“That is also the life of a No. 9,” Slot commented. “You go from missing a chance to scoring an important goal to missing a chance again. But today, especially in the second half. You also saw the work rate he can bring to the team. But the main thing that happened in the second half was that we started to play in a different tempo.”
