Gary Neville highlights 'brutal' Arne Slot moment from Liverpool vs Ipswich

Gary Neville has lauded Liverpool's new boss Arne Slot for his "clinical and brutal" approach, following a decisive substitution in his first Premier League outing that led to victory. Slot guided Liverpool to a 2-0 triumph over Ipswich Town in his opening league game but didn't hesitate to make a bold change at half-time, hooking Jarell Quansah due to an unsatisfactory team performance in the first half.

The switch proved effective as Liverpool upped their game after the break, while Ipswich appeared to lose steam. Speaking on his podcast, Sky Sports pundit Neville was forthright about Slot's decision. He said: "Arne Slot was quite tough on Quansah. Subbing someone at half time is big and I don't think it's done lightly by managers.

"It was the way in which after the game he was quite blunt about how he answered it. There was no holding back. So I think there's an element there of him being quite clinical and brutal and saying he's reacting to the game and what was happening. He felt like they needed to win the duels, I think that was his main thread behind the decision and it worked. You've got to say in the second half Liverpool were a lot better and it was a good win for them."

Slot revealed his half-time team talk that ignited a comeback in the second half. In his post-match press conference, the 45-year-old coach stated that Quansah wasn't the only player struggling in the match.

"The first thing I said was we don't have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels, and that's what we did," he shared.

"It's not that Jarell lost every duel, many of us lost too many duels, so we needed Ibrahima Konate to win these long balls in the air towards their No.9 (Delap), so that helped and gave us control. But they put so, so much energy into the first half, running, fighting, playing all over the pitch one v one, and I don't think they could keep up with that tempo in the second half."