Liverpool manager Arne Slot has revealed that he took Jarell Quansah off at half time in the Reds' 2-0 Premier League win over Ipswich Town due to the fact that his side were losing too many duels.
The Englishman was given the nod over Ibrahima Konate to partner Virgil van Dijk at Portman Road, as was the case during the final few weeks of Jurgen Klopp's reign last season.
Quansah pipped Konate to the other centre-back spot on account of playing more minutes in pre-season, as the latter represented France at Euro 2024, and the 21-year-old was largely impressive in the first half.
Liverpool as a team struggled to make inroads against an aggressive Ipswich outfit, though, and Konate was sent out to warm up at the end of the first half, before coming on for Quansah during the interval.
It was initially reported that Quansah was brought off due to a muscle injury, and with the Reds academy graduate watching on, Liverpool took control of proceedings in the second half and prevailed thanks to goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah.
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Slot: 'Liverpool were totally different in second half'
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Slot confirmed that Quansah was not injured, but he said in disguised words that the 21-year-old lost too many of his battles, and Konate's change had a hugely positive impact on the visitors' performance.
"We as a team made a big change at half-time because we came out totally different to how we had come out in the first half," Slot explained. "I have to give credit to Ipswich as well because I think they were aggressive, they were not afraid, they were playing one-v-one all over the pitch to defend us.
"I think we lost far too many duels. They were very aggressive, which led to three yellow cards – but in a good way aggressive – and we didn't cope with that well enough, in my opinion.
"That's what I said to them at half-time, if you want to win here then you need to go a step up in terms of winning your duels first and make a fight out of it, instead of accepting that every time we play a ball long that the ball ends up in our 16 again.
"It helped us as well because Ibou Konate came in because he, from the start, won his duels against the No.9 and that gave us also a lot of ball possession and two goals, but we could have scored a few more, though."
Slot ends 26-year Liverpool wait in Ipswich win
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After Quansah was hooked in favour of Konate, Liverpool took the game by the scruff of the neck, as Salah firstly squared for Jota to crash home the Reds' first top-flight goal of the campaign.
The Egyptian quickly went from assister to goalscorer, linking up with Dominik Szoboszlai and benefitting from a poor Leif Davis touch to prod home his ninth opening-day goal in the Premier League.
Salah's strike saw him set a new record for gameweek one goals in the top flight since 1992, while Slot also managed to end a dismal 26-year managerial wait for Liverpool, becoming the first Reds boss since 1998 to win his opening Premier League game.
The most recent head coach to do so before the Dutchman was Gerard Houllier, who alongside Roy Evans masterminded a 2-1 victory over Southampton in 1998, as Rafael Benitez, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish (in his second spell), Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp all failed to win their opening Premier League games.
Liverpool's first Premier League home game under Slot comes on Sunday, August 25, when the Merseyside giants welcome Brentford to Anfield.
Ben Knapton
