Slot: Record-breaking Salah has years left at top

IPSWICH, England — Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said Mohamed Salah can continue his record-breaking run of scoring on the opening day of the Premier League season for years to come after he helped them to a 2-0 win at Ipswich Town on Saturday.

Salah scored Liverpool’s second goal and teed up their first for Diogo Jota on the hour mark as Slot got his tenure at the club off to a winning start in the post-Jürgen Klopp era. Salah’s goal in the 65th minute meant he has now scored on the opening day of the season nine times, breaking the tie for record with Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney and Alan Shearer.

His contract with Liverpool is up at the end of the season, and while Slot would not be drawn on questions pertaining to his talisman’s future after the match, he said Salah’s form is no surprise given the amount of work he puts in.

“If [you] see what he does to keep his body as it is, there are many more years inside of him,” Slot said. “[Regarding the future,] I am looking at Brentford and not at the end of the season.”

Ipswich pushed Liverpool hard and had the better chances in the first half, managing the only two shots on target of the game at that stage.

Slot made a switch at the break, bringing on Ibrahima Konaté for Jarell Quansah, and Liverpool upped their tempo in the second period. Slot was pleased with the way they rallied, but also said the first 45 minutes fell short of his expectations.

“I inherited a very, very good team with a lot of great individuals, but also these players have to understand that it’s not enough, what they brought in the first half,” the new manager said. “And if they bring [the] maximum of their capacity, they can play really, really good. And that’s what they showed in the second half today. But it was good to see the goals we scored.”

“When I started here, there were many things that [were] told to me, but one of them was Jürgen [Klopp] hated the 12:30 p.m. kickoff.

“The team showed they hated the 12:30 p.m. kickoff because we were not in the game in the first half. And the second thing is, what people told me, is that there are no easy games in the Premier League. And we showed that today if you play against the newly promoted team and they can make such a fight out as they did in the first half, they make it so difficult for us.”

For Ipswich, this was their first match back in the top flight for 22 years after successive promotions under Kieran McKenna. He was pleased with their first-half showing as they prepare to travel to Manchester City next Saturday.

“A lot of positives to take, mostly in the first half,” McKenna said. “Strong first-half performance, we made a difficult game for Liverpool, pressed really well, we were aggressive, physical and in possession, we did good things. [I] thought we gave a strong team a lot of problems. The challenge for us is we have to do that for 90 minutes, or in the periods we can’t be like that, we have to manage the game.

“There were a lot more positives. The second half was difficult, Liverpool kicked into their stride and the game got away from us. The players will come away from the game more confident knowing they can compete at this level.”