Mohamed Salah reveals angry Arne Slot laid into Liverpool players

Mohamed Salah admitted that Liverpool manager Arne Slot was angry with the first-half performance against bottom of the table Southampton – and rightly so.

The Reds surprisingly trailed at the interval to Will Smallbone's goal, courtesy of some lackadaisical defending just before the 15-minute intermission.

It was unfamiliar territory for Southampton, who had two wins to their name from 27 games played heading to Anfield, and they quickly surrendered their advantage early in the second period. Darwin Nunez levelled the scores before Salah netted from the penalty spot – he did so again late on in the game to hand Liverpool a 3-1 win.

Slot, who was in the stands serving the final match of his two-game touchline ban, was less than impressed with what he saw in the opening 45 minutes, with Salah – many people's early favourite for the Ballon d'Or and certain Premier League Golden Boot winner – revealing after the game what he'd said in the dressing room.

"It was a bit of frustration,” Salah told Premier League Productions. "The manager, his head was going for us – but that’s something you need sometimes.

"Because first half, the game was sloppy, we just were slow and taking our time and in the last minute they managed to (go ahead in) the game. But we are now more experienced, we can manage that situation and I’m glad that we did.

"I don’t think we played well today. Maybe second half we played a little bit better, but first half we didn’t play well at all. If you want to win the Champions League or Premier League you have to win these games like that."

Slot warns Liverpool of intensity drop against PSG

Slot will have been impressed by Liverpool's reaction, which saw them extend their advantage over Arsenal in the Premier League title race to an astonishing 16 points. But the significance of the slow start was not lost on the former Feyenoord manager, as he told Sky Sports of the difference in intensity from his players and those of PSG in the Champions League midweek.

"It was a very poor performance in the first half," he fumed. "Maybe if you see the highlights you would feel there were three or four chances, but we were not in the game at all and it didn't come to a surprise to me that we conceded a goal. Especially if you look at the way we conceded it, it tells you all about our first half.

"We found a way to win the game in the second half."

The Dutchman added: "I'm fully aware of the fact that if you play a season, you cannot play 38 times in the highest intensity or the best possible football you can play. So sometimes you have to find another way of winning a game.

"But the first half today is hopefully a warning sign because like I said, we've experienced it already in Paris, that the intensity, the way they play, was very high for us on that night. And if I compare it with the intensity we played today, it's not one, two, three, four, five steps, it's probably six or seven or eight steps down towards the intensity levels of Paris Saint-Germain."

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