Arne Slott pleased with Liverpool’s adaptability in win against Brighton – Irvine Times

With Diego Hota and Federico Chiesa sidelined, midfielders Curtis Jones and Dominic Soboslay were tasked with complementing the attacking threat of wide pair Cody Gakpo and Luis Diaz at the Amex Stadium, while Darwin Nunez was given a rest by starting on the bench.

Gakpo guided the holders to a quarter-final trip to Southampton with a superb second-half brace before Diaz grabbed what proved to be the winner between late goals from Seagulls pair Simon Adingra and Tariq Lamptey.

Dutchman Slott, who made eight changes for the fourth-round tie in Sussex, was happy with the experiment but would prefer to play with a centre-forward as he turns his attention to the Premier League.

“If you play those two (Jones and Soboslay) without a number nine, you’re always a bit worried about whether you have enough runs behind the back line because those two like to play in midfield as well and combine there to make triangles there.” said Slott, whose side host Brighton in the top division on Saturday.

“But I think what they did really well was combine, trying to become an extra midfielder, but don’t forget to do the deep shots as well.

“It helped that Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo were also a constant threat at the back, so overall I liked what I saw.

“I’d rather play a number nine but if they’re not available – and of course we had Darwin available but I think it wasn’t good for him to start today after playing three games and with the schedule coming up – then that was result of what we tried to come up with and I think the players did really well.”

Slott was pleased with the impact of the players in his south coast squad and believes there are positive selection headaches going forward.

Back-up goalkeeper Vitezslav Jarosz marked his full Liverpool debut with several important saves.

The 23-year-old Czech, who has been on loan at Notts County, Stockport and Austrian club Sturm Graz in recent seasons, denied Lamptey to open the first half before curling Adingra’s superb header onto the post for 1-0.

“Everybody could see how important his saves were,” said Slott, whose starting guard Allison Becker is unavailable with a hamstring problem.

“The first big chance of the game was for them when he saved one-on-one and in the second half, of course, we all remember one or two saves as well.

“But he also added to how comfortable he was with the ball at his feet: he was making the right choices when to cut short and when to cut the ball to the striker, and that helped him with the quality that Jarrell Quanza and Joe Gomez brought in the build-up.”

“I really liked that triangle in possession today.”