Arne Slot reveals Xabi Alonso paid his Liverpool side ultimate compliment

Arne Slot has explained how a recent tactic from Xabi Alonso is evidence of a compliment to his Liverpool team. The Reds beat Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in midweek with a 4-0 victory at Anfield, with Alonso in the opposition dugout as manager of the German club.

Luis Diaz scored a hat-trick and was supported by a goal from Cody Gakpo to maintain Liverpool's 100 percent start to the competition. The victory was a 14th across the first 16 matches in Slot's first season as the club's new head coach.

Going into the clash against Aston Villa on Saturday night, Liverpool have won all but one of their home matches at Anfield in all competitions. The one exception was the defeat to Nottingham Forest in September, with the other seven across all competitions.

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Slot was speaking ahead of Liverpool's clash against Villa, where he was asked about knowing what teams are going to do before he welcomes them to Anfield. The Reds head coach then explained how the recent win over Leverkusen was evidence of opposition managers making unexpected tactical changes, praising Alonso in the process.

"Until now, every time, a team lines up a bit different to us than all the weeks before, Xabi Alonso has played the same style for one-and-a-half or two years [at Leverkusen], I think," Slot told TNT Sports.

"He came here playing Boniface as a left winger, so that is also a compliment to our players that every team that comes here feels they need a special plan.

"The good thing for us is that it's mostly also the first time that they play it, so you could argue if it's an advantage for them to do that, but they feel that it's an advantage for them.

"Sometimes, in the first half, we have to adjust a bit, and then it's a disadvantage for me and for us that we only work together for three or four months. Because I think if you work with a team for three or four years you've faced every system, everybody knows what to do.

"Sometimes we need half-time for that, but it's a matter of time before we are adjusting faster than that."