Liverpool 2-0 Brentford: Arne Slot is making sound progress - with Luis Diaz and Mo Salah on target against Bees

With fifteen minutes left, and with Liverpool having secured the second goal required to seal this game, Anfield started to sing the name of Arne Slot for the first time. It was only a flicker and it died out pretty quickly. Almost like a passing whisper in a corridor. But it was there just the same and it felt significant. 

Two games in and a new Liverpool manager is making sound progress at the start of what may transpire to be quite a difficult journey.

Much of what we saw from Slot’s Liverpool here was reminiscent of the Jurgen Klopp era. The hunger, work rate and desire was instantly recognisable, so too the clinical and devastating way Liverpool imposed themselves on Brentford once the game got stretched. 

There was a period either side of Mo Salah’s decisive goal in the 76th minute during which Liverpool could have scored four times. Liverpool may have changed manager but footballers simply don’t lose instincts like that overnight.

Equally, Liverpool can still look a little vulnerable, especially in the air. Brentford had two big headed opportunities – one in each half – when they were only a single goal down. 

Thomas Frank’s team were very much in the game at that point. In fact the 45 minutes that followed Luis Diaz’s 13th minute goal were quite even. During this spell Liverpool did not dominate their opponents and it is probably this that Slot will occupy himself with between now and the first real test of his Liverpool reign, a game at Manchester United next Sunday.

Still, he will not complain. His team have won their first two league games by a 2-0 scoreline and as such much of the analysis and judgement of his early days has already been smothered by the focus currently being applied to other clubs who have perhaps started the season less well. Slot will be grateful for that.

Here Liverpool started and finished the game well. Diaz’s early goal was struck rapaciously after a thrilling counter attack from a Brentford corner. Salah’s second of the new campaign came after Diaz played him through towards the Kop with fifteen minutes to go.

There were long periods where Liverpool didn’t impose themselves and it is tempting to wonder how that may look and feel against better teams. Liverpool are the only team in Europe’s top seven leagues not to buy a new player this summer and it’s no secret that it’s a holding player – or a number six – that they want. Time will tell on that one. The transfer window is not yet closed and the next dew days may well be as important as anything we have seen from Liverpool on the field so far.

The opening goal of the Slot era at Anfield was right out of the Klopp playbook, even if the celebration was rather more low ley.

A Brentford corner was cleared to the edge of the penalty area and when Salah won a tackle to free the ball, Liverpool were away.

It was Digo Jota who led the charge up field but with only Diaz up ahead of him, he had to find the perfect pass. The Portuguese forward did exactly that, threading the ball between two defenders to set his team-mate clear in to the penalty area. With Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken advancing towards him, Diaz had options but chose power and thrashed the ball high in to the net from 12 yards.

While Anfield celebrated its first goal of the season, Slot’s reaction was muted, turning to discuss the finer points of what he had just seen with members of his coaching team.

That goal came in the 13th minute and seemed to set Liverpool up for a comfortable passage through the first half. For a while that was how it was. Brentford retreated in to a deep 4-4-2 and sought to navigate a way through the difficulties that always come when Liverpool score early at home.

There were a couple of tricky moments. A cute Diaz pass gave Andrew Robertson sight of goal in the 19th minute and the Scot’s low near post shot was turned away by Flekken. Then, on the other side, Trent Alexander-Arnold pulled the ball back for Salah whose drive needed another intervention from the goalkeeper. Anfield was expectant at this stage but for the rest of the half their team didn’t really deliver.

For all their attacking talent, Liverpool still lack a holding player on which platforms can be built. With former captain Jordan Henderson and the great Brazilian Fabinho having gone, Liverpool are currently asking Ryan Gravenberch to do the job. The Dutch midfielder did a good job in the win at Ipswich eight days ago but doesn’t feel as though as he is the long-term solution. Gravenberch is, by instinct, a more attack-minded player.

Liverpool were rarely under any real pressure here. They just lost their way a bit. An Alexander-Arnold free-kick looped over the bar in the 24th minute but Liverpool didn’t really threaten again until the same player had a shot deflected over almost on the half-time whistle.

During this period, Brentford had found a real foothold in the game. Captain Christian Norgaard definitely should have equalised when left unattended at a free-kick just after the half hour. The header from eight yards flew wide. Then, in the 43rd minute, the impressive Keane Lewis-Potter was found in space on the edge of the penalty area and his low shot was held well by Alisson Becker with two Brentford players lurking in hope of a goalkeeping error.

Frank had once again left Ivan Toney out of his squad for the game. With a move to Saudi Arabia still on the table, Brentford clearly don’t want Toney to get injured. Still, he would have brought an extra dimension to their efforts here.

Having said that, Brentford caused Liverpool another aerial problem early in the second half. A short corner on the left was eventually delivered high to the far post and when Nathan Collins rose to head the ball goalwards, Alisson saved with two hands in front of his face.

Liverpool themselves had threatened again by that point. Jota’s speculative overhead kick immediately after half-time dropped on to Robertson’s head at the far post and Flekken advanced to save bravely at point blank range. Then Dominik Szoboszlai almost served Luiz at the near post only for a defender to clear.

With half an hour to go, the match was poised. Liverpool always carried a threat when they did come forward. Alexander-Arnold side-footed a dropping ball into Jota’s path at the far post and the ensuing shot was deflected over. Then the English player’s corner struck the angle of post and bar and when the ball was recycled and returned, Ibrahima Konate’s header was powerful and low and needed saving by Flekken.

For the first time since the period either side of the goal, Liverpool were starting to build pressure and the game felt different as a result. Jota eased to the byline in the 64th minute and pulled the ball back towards Diaz. The Colombian’s shot seemed destined for the bottom corner but Flekken reached it with his fingertips to produce the save of the game so far. 

Then, two minutes later, it was Luiz’s turn to feed Jota on the overlap and this time Collins slid in to block. A Salah shot in to Flekken’s midriff soon after only deepened the feeling that a decisive second goal was not far away. With a little over twenty minutes remaining, Brentford looked genuinely stretched and sure enough Salah’s goal arrived almost immediately.

Liverpool once again won the battle for the scraps in centre field and when Diaz picked up possession, he slid Salah clear for the Egyptian to lift the ball over Flekken and in to the far corner with his right foot.

That pretty much sealed the result and a smattering of substitutes then deprived the game of its pattern. One such player, Cody Gakpo, struck the top of the bar with a deflected shot and that was pretty much it.

At full-time, Slot folded his coat over his arm and took a walk on the field like a man ambling down to the post office on a Saturday morning. A wave and a thumbs up to the Kop was appreciated and reciprocated and then he was gone. A man of under-statement, it seems. It’s been a while since we have seen one of those round here.