2 days ago
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Ahead of the Premier League opener against Bournemouth on Friday, Liverpool supporters demonstrated their backing for head coach Arne Slot.
The Reds kicked off their league title defence at Anfield against the Cherries, marking their first competitive match since clinching their 20th title last season. Slot and his team entered the clash following a loss to Crystal Palace in the previous week's Community Shield at Wembley.
The match also marked the league debuts of Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz, and Milos Kerkez, who were all included in the Liverpool starting line-up by Slot. Before the match, a banner was unveiled by Liverpool fans on the Kop, a tradition that has become a fixture on the renowned stand prior to kick-off.
The banner pays tribute to some of the Reds' most legendary managers and head coaches, including Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan, Sir Kenny Dalglish, Rafa Benitez, and Jurgen Klopp.
Managers earn their place on the banner after leading Liverpool to either the league title or the Champions League.
Having steered the Reds to the title last season, Slot has now earned his spot on the banner, which was revealed before the kick-off against Bournemouth on Friday.
The banner made its first appearance on the Kop during the 2009/10 season and has been a regular feature ahead of home matches at Anfield ever since.
Liverpool led Bournemouth 1-0 at half-time, thanks to Ekitike's opening goal at Anfield. It was the forward's second goal since his summer transfer from Eintracht Frankfurt, having also scored in the Community Shield.
Cody Gakpo doubled Liverpool's lead just after half-time before Bournemouth staged a brilliant comeback, with Antoine Semenyo scoring a brace.
Federico Chiesa came off the bench to score an 88th-minute winner in front of the Kop before Mohamed Salah found the net in added time to make it 4-2.
"It was a great game to watch," said Slot. "This is what makes football so great, all three parties involved wanted a good game: Us, Bournemouth, and the referee.
"High tempo, no stoppages or time wasting. Well done to them, they went 2-0 down and kept on fighting, and so did we when they came back.
"In every running stat, they were very high last season, and you could see again how fit this team was, and they never gave up. For the goals, our rest defence was in place, but the pace they had and the tempo they kept up, they got past, but they faced that too.
"Bournemouth faced a team that never gave up. We lost many players during the summer, but we did not lose our mentality."
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