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'It tells you' - Arne Slot sends Xabi Alonso message as Liverpool boss tells his side what is needed

-Credit: (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
-Credit: (Image: Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)


Arne Slot says that Liverpool need to be much better to beat “special” Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen side, especially in the first half. Two days after a classic Anfield comeback victory, the Liverpool manager has called for his team to start faster in this week’s Champions League tie against the German champions.

After an historic season that ended with a league and cup double, Bayer Leverkusen haven’t quite reached the same heights in the early stages of this campaign, but Arne Slot says that his opponents are just as good, and have just been unlucky with results.

Speaking in his press conference this afternoon, the Dutchman has dubbed it as “a big European game” ahead of Xabi Alonso’s first return to Anfield as a manager.

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Slot said: “[Alonso] is special, that is clear. Going to a club bottom of the league and with the same players you bring them all the way up, so it tells you that he is special. But what it is that makes him special is difficult for me to say.”

Liverpool come into the match with maximum points in Europe this season and in an excellent run of form, but the Reds’ struggled early on against Brighton at the weekend, a team that – like Leverkusen – play out from the back very well.

Slot added: “Football is played in two moments, when you have the ball and when you don’t. When we play against strong teams like Leverkusen, we need to be good in both sides, unfortunately in the first half [against Brighton] we were poor on both ends.”

The Liverpool boss was complementary about the Bayer Leverkusen squad as he dismissed that it was just their wide players that posed a threat as he said that they have more than only great wingbacks, but a whole squad of very good players.

He offered a warning for his players that against teams like Leverkusen, they cannot drop off even one percent of intensity they showed in the second half at the weekend if they wish to stay in and around the top of the 36-team Champions League table.