Arne Slot insists the medal collections of his Liverpool squad makes it easy for them not to be carried away
Arne Slot insists the medal collection of his Liverpool squad makes it easy for them not to be carried away after an impressive start to the campaign. And the Reds head coach says it “would be very weird” if his team were being overly indulgent in their status as early Premier League leaders given the campaign is still in its fledgling stages.
The Reds have the chance to head into the second international break of the season as league leaders when they are entertained by Crystal Palace on Saturday lunchtime and victory at Selhurst Park will send them four clear of Manchester City in second ahead of Pep Guardiola’s team coming up against Fulham at the Etihad at 3pm. Arsenal, meanwhile, who are also on 14 points in third, host struggling Southampton at the same time.
With so many of his squad having already won the Premier League and Champions League during their time at Anfield, Slot says no-one will be losing focus inside the camp after an impressive start to life on Merseyside that has seen the Dutchman win eight of nine games in all competitions.
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“We are Liverpool, so players here are used to being on top of the table,” Slot said. “It would be very weird if a player at Liverpool would have his head in the clouds.
“So no, but if we don’t play well tomorrow, people will probably come up with that instead of saying Palace played well or we maybe did other things wrong. But I don’t think [the players being carried away], and that would definitely not be normal, for two reasons.
“One, these players are experienced enough to read the league table after six games with the schedule we have compared to some other teams. And second of all, Virgil, Alisson, Trent, Robbo (Andy Robertson) Mo Salah; they won the league here and the Champions League here.
“So for them it is a nice thing to be top of the table but I am not expecting them to look at their mobile every second of the day seeing them being top of the table.”
Slot added: “You always look at the first one and that is Crystal Palace and they have already shown how tough of an opponent they are against the big teams with their results against Manchester United and Chelsea.
“That’s the first game [up next] for us and it’s a difficult one for us as well. A 12:30 kick off after playing Wednesday night, late in the Champions League against a team who has had a week to prepare.
“But that is part of working at a top club that we face those teams and that we have to bready to face those teams and that is what we are tomorrow. I don’t look at this moment about one point, three points, four, it’s after the weekend it is interesting to look at the table, not after the game we have played.”
