Arne Slot explained that defender Jarell Quansah was substituted at half-time in Liverpool’s victory over Ipswich Town because he felt his team were not winning enough aerial challenges.

Quansah, 21, started Liverpool’s first Premier League game of the 2024-25 season alongside Virgil van Dijk at centre-back, but was replaced by Ibrahima Konate at half-time as Slot’s side were left with no chance against the newly promoted side in a hard-fought first half at Portman Road.

Slot confirmed that the decision to replace Quansah was not due to injury concerns, but because he felt Konate was better able to deal with the aerial threat posed by Ipswich striker Liam Delap.

“The first taste of the first half was perhaps not what we expected,” the Liverpool manager told TNT Sports. “They were all over us and very aggressive. We couldn’t find a rhythm or get balls back. The second half was a joy to watch.”

“The first thing I said was that we don’t need to talk about tactics when you’re losing so many tackles. And that’s what we did. Not that Jarell lost every tackle – many of us lost too many tackles – but I think we needed Konate to win those long balls through the air for the number 9. That gave us control.

“They put so much energy into the first half, they had to keep running and fighting, they played one-on-one all over the pitch. And I don’t think they could keep that pace in the second half.”

When asked whether Quansah was substituted at half-time for tactical reasons rather than fitness reasons, he replied: “Yes.”

Quansah had a 50 percent tackle success rate in the first half, according to Opta, winning four of the eight duels he faced. Konate then won 80 percent of his tackles in the second half.

Quansah’s tackle success rate was average compared to the Liverpool team, but below average when compared to the back four. Van Dijk (75 percent) and Trent Alexander-Arnold (66.7 percent) both performed better, while Andy Robertson (25 percent) won fewer duels.

Thanks to goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah in the second half, Liverpool ultimately secured a comfortable 2-0 victory and gave new head coach Slot his first victory in the Premier League.

Slot praised his team’s improved performance in the second half after they had not shown enough fighting spirit in the first half.

“We showed them at half-time that you can’t keep passing the ball short when a team is playing one-on-one all over the pitch,” he added. “When you have wingers, strikers and attackers like that, you have to play the ball and then fight for it.”

“And I didn’t see them fighting in the first half. We lost almost every long ball, every tackle on both sides. In the second half they were ready and before we scored a goal we already had a very good chance. Gaps opened up and you could see that we could play pretty good football.”

Defender Joe Gomez was not included in Slot’s squad for Saturday’s game despite being fully fit, leaving his future increasingly uncertain.

GO DEEPER

The briefing: Ipswich 0 – Liverpool 2 – How did Slot cause a stir in the second half?

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