Díaz and Salah give Slot perfect Anfield welcome

In the blink of an eye Liverpool were away. A touch from Mohamed Salah on the edge of his own penalty area, ahead of Vitaly Janelt, proved telling and ten seconds later Arne Slot was celebrating on the touchline for the first time in a competitive game at Anfield.
Not in an ostentatious manner, of course. There was just a little shake of the fists, but the moment would have meant everything to the new Liverpool head coach. His fledgling tenure was taking another step in the right direction.
The breakthrough arrived direct from a Brentford corner and was, in truth, the sort of blitzkrieg raid that was once the trademark under Jürgen Klopp when Salah’s partners in crime were Sadio Mané and Roberto Firmino.
Here, it was Diogo Jota who carried the rapier threat against two backpedalling opponents, and the threaded pass that allowed Luis Díaz to sprint away from Bryan Mbeumo was a delight. A left-footed drive fizzed beyond Mark Flekken, the Brentford goalkeeper, in a blur.
Slot has said he wants the majesty of his side’s football to be responsible for establishing a bond between himself and the crowd, rather than any passion play the cameras may capture.
That start — and this result — will more than suffice for now, and the sound of the Dutchman’s name echoing around the stadium during the second half spoke eloquently to that. The buy-in from the gallery has been as quick as his players, notwithstanding Trent Alexander-Arnold looking unimpressed at being substituted when the game was all but over as a contest.
If the opening goal, and the sight of Salah later applying a layer of gloss, offered echoes of the past, then the slick interplay in and around the edge of Brentford’s penalty area was, on occasions, mesmeric.
Liverpool were denied further goals only by the odd last-ditch challenge or, in the substitute Cody Gakpo’s case, the crossbar. There were several moments, when red shirts weaved pretty, off-the-cuff patterns, that whet the appetite for what is to come when everything is embedded a little deeper.
The idea, now, is to play an extra pass, rather than go straight for a difficult ball, and to weigh up the balance between risk and reward.
When Jota attempted a shot that was blocked in the second half, Slot immediately gestured with an outstretched hand that the Portugal forward should have looked to find the team-mate overlapping to his left.
Yet a pass completion rate of 92 per cent — the home team’s highest in a league game since Opta began recording the data in 2003-04 — indicated that the coach’s methods are taking hold even if, in the first half especially, the control he craves seemed to be lacking.
That is understandable, but Slot can head into next weekend’s trip to Old Trafford with two victories out of two providing a platform from which to build. There has been so much focus on why Liverpool have not signed a player this summer that it has been overlooked that part of Slot’s remit is to improve the squad he inherited.
No one who has followed the progress of Díaz would dispute that his finishing must improve, and if his unerring strike — his first since scoring against Manchester United 11 club games ago, in April — was a sign of things to come, then the benefits will be felt collectively.
Perhaps Brentford had been suckered into believing that, under Slot, the style is different, that the handbrake is applied rather than the foot being pressed to the floor. But, having been caught out once from their own set piece, there was no excuse for almost conceding in the same manner soon after. This time Keane Lewis-Potter managed to stifle Salah’s momentum.
Thomas Frank, the Brentford head coach, described his side’s display in the opening 45 minutes as their best at Anfield under him, though they lacked cutting edge.
Fábio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg, recruited from Liverpool for what could be a combined £52million, began on the substitutes’ bench, while Ivan Toney was again excluded from the match-day squad despite “training well” amid continued intrigue over his future. Brentford have turned down a £35 million bid from the Saudi Arabian side Al-Ahli for the England striker and an important few days lie ahead.
Toney’s scoring instinct was missed in the 31st minute when Mbeumo’s free kick found Christian Norgaard on the edge of the six-yard area, in front of Alexis Mac Allister. The Denmark midfielder’s header drifted wide.
Another excellent chance followed soon after the break, when Mathias Jensen curled over a cross and Nathan Collins directed a point-blank header at Alisson.
Liverpool’s No 1 instinctively pushed the attempt upwards and then punched clear to underline his importance. Those openings served as a reminder of the items that remain on Slot’s to-do list, but he would have recognised the work rate from his players in seeking to cut out any sloppiness.
The Dutchman appears to be the kind of football obsessive who would find fault in a 5-0 rout and, tellingly, there was a little more vigour when Slot shook his fists after Salah sealed victory on 70 minutes.
Carvalho had just stepped off the bench but lost a duel with the hard-working Dominik Szoboszlai, after which Mac Allister nudged a pass to Díaz.
He in turn found Salah, who, having been played onside by Mads Roerslev, finished with aplomb to continue what has been an impressive start to the campaign from an attacker who shows no sign of slowing.
If the day had begun with stylistic similarities with the past, then it ended with a sharp contrast. Slot, with not a fist-pump in sight, waved in acknowledgment of an appreciative audience.
Slot acknowledged that ­Alexander-Arnold was unhappy at being substituted in the win against Brentford but said he was simply protecting the Liverpool defender from future injury.
The head coach also stressed that Conor Bradley deserves minutes as he continues his own eye-catching progress. Slot moved to sit next to Alexander-Arnold, who looked unimpressed at having been replaced after 72 minutes at Anfield. The vice-captain was also substituted in the victory over Ipswich Town, but Slot defused any tensions.
“He didn’t look that happy after being taken off,” he said. “I understand. Every player wants to play 90 minutes. But I don’t think the players that were on the bench from the start were really happy with the choice I made.
“Trent came back from the national team where, in the beginning of the tournament, he played quite a lot, then he didn’t. He had a few weeks off, came back, this is only his third game. We have to take care of him because we need him for the whole season and not just the first two games.
“But what is good for me is that I have a very good back-up as well with Conor. So we are taking care of Trent. But he played a good game, that is also what I saw.”
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Alisson 8 — T Alexander-Arnold 7 (C Bradley 73min), I Konaté 8, V van Dijk 7, A Robertson 7 — R Gravenberch 7 (W Endo 90), A Mac Allister 7 — M Salah 8 (H Elliott 84), D Szoboszlai 7, L Díaz 8 (C Gakpo 73) — D Jota 6 (D Núñez 72). Booked: Szoboszlai, Gravenberch
Brentford (4-4-2): M Flekken 7 — M Roerslev 6, N Collins 7, E Pinnock 6, K Ajer 7 — M Jensen 6 (F Carvalho 66, 5), C Norgaard 6, V Janelt 6 (F Onyeka 73), K Lewis-Potter 7 (M Damsgaard 66, 6) — B Mbeumo 7, Y Wissa 6 (K Schade 73). Booked: Norgaard, Jensen, Mbeumo
Referee: S Attwell