Arne Slot pleads with Liverpool stars to 'make it more simple for ourselves'

Arne Slot has challenged Liverpool to be more ruthless and score more goals after Virgil van Dijk's strike secured a 1-0 win at Sunderland to reignite their Champions League qualification push

Arne Slot wants Liverpool to score more goals(Image: NurPhoto, NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Arne Slot has urged his Liverpool side to show ruthlessness in front of the goal despite witnessing them breathe new life into their pursuit of Champions League football.

Virgil van Dijk netted the decisive goal just past the hour mark as the Reds claimed a well-earned 1-0 Premier League victory at Sunderland on Wednesday evening. The triumph pulled Liverpool to within three points of the top four and just two points adrift of fifth place following Manchester United and Chelsea's draws the night before.

While Slot was pleased with how his side bounced back from Sunday's heartbreaking 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City, he is demanding the Reds begin converting their superiority into more goals.

"We've had so many setbacks and disappointments where we didn't get what we deserved but the players showed up again three days later and performed," said the Liverpool manager.

"I saw a very good performance from my team throughout the 90 minutes.

"We have shown that response so many times this season. Now it's about the consistency and results. It's not a coincidence when we win our games because we are usually the better team on the pitch. It's more surprising to see we didn't have more wins.

"But today you could also see why. If you create so many chances and have three-v-two situations, it should — and will — lead to us scoring much more goals.

Virgil van Dijk's header sealed Liverpool's win over Sunderland(Image: Stu Forster, Getty Images)

"If we want to make it more simple for ourselves it would be nice if we could score more goals."

Both Hugo Ekitike and Mohamed Salah spurned promising chances in the second half, whilst star performer Florian Wirtz rattled the woodwork before the interval and later saw a goal-bound shot blocked.

Speaking about Wirtz, Slot said: "Not for the first time he was really good. But recently when he was really good he was also involved in goals and assists and today he was very close and maybe should have been on the scoresheet with the amount of quality he has.

"But it's good to see not only him but also other players developing so well, playing another good game of football where we had such a disappointment against City, when we played so well second half and deserved so much more than we got."

Reflecting on the match, Slot added: "It didn't feel to me at all like a struggle as I thought we played really, really, really well again.

"Sunderland have a difficult playing style to play against, a lot of long balls to defend and a lot of balls in the channel, and I thought we did that really well and controlled the second ball really good.

"From that second ball we played some very good football. I'm getting used to more and more now us missing a lot of chances, which we did again.

"The big exception compared to all the other games against promoted teams or where we are the better team, we weren't able to score from a set-piece and usually concede one. But we did scored and that's the difference between all the games we dropped points."