Pragmatism of Slot a potent weapon in Reds' title charge

The business end of a season isn't always the point to parade your principles. Arne Slot has attacking ideals, but a fondness for winning can override idealism.

- RICHARD JOLLY

"Sometimes as a manager, you have to be pragmatic as well and understand it is maybe not our game in terms of football, [so] then we as a coaching staff have to be ready to make decisions that help the team in those moments,” he rationalised. He was talking, in particular, about the moment he brought on Wataru Endo for Luis Diaz to help Liverpool see out victory over Wolves.

Slot isn’t as wedded to a system as some of his peers but he has tended to have at least three specialist forwards on the pitch. Until, for the last 25 minutes on Sunday, as Endo slotted into the midfield, Dominik Szoboszlai manned the left flank. The Hungarian’s formidable running power was used, Slot said, to “neutralise”.

That might seem Endo’s role, too. It was his 11th appearance in the Premier League this season and the third longest: but as the other two came when Liverpool had already scored four goals in each match, the most significant. The sense is that Slot likes Endo personally and respects his professionalism but does not think he fits his preferred style of play. Nevertheless, despite Ryan Gravenberch’s reinvention, he is the only long-time defensive midfielder in the squad. His surname could have a significance: Endo might be Liverpool’s designated closer, to borrow a term from baseball, to see out games, to see out a title challenge.