ARNE SLOT was furious with his Liverpool players despite continuing their perfect Champions League record.
Mo Salah's second-half penalty against Girona made it six wins in six for the Reds and means they are confident of finishing in the top eight and avoiding a play-off round in February.
But Liverpool's Slot, who welcomed back goalkeeper Alisson back from injury, slammed his team for not being “aggressive” enough in Spain.
He said: “I'm very happy with the first five games, but I'm far from happy with this performance. Mainly two things.
“When you play against a team that has such a good idea of football and knows how to bring the ball forward from the back, like some of the teams we have played against recently, such as City or Real Madrid, then you can be as intense as you want to make it difficult for them.
“But we were outplayed so easily and then this team can cause you a lot of problems.
“They have shown that in their matches, in the entire Champions League this season, except for PSV Eindhoven.
“I almost feel sorry for them because they deserve so many more points than the three points they have.
“The other part is that every time we lost the ball we weren't aggressive enough, so every time we lost the ball they were able to go almost all the way to our goal and make a shot.
“We hardly had control over the match. Maybe the second half was a little better, I'm trying to be positive.”
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Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson was sidelined for more than two months due to a hamstring injury, but made five important saves before Salah struck from the spot after VAR spotted a foul by Donny van de Beek on Luis Diaz.
Slot joked: “We have to thank Alisson for keeping a clean sheet.
“Maybe his teammates wanted to make sure he was really fit, to give him some work.
“That was of course not the intention, but today he showed why he is so important to us. I have said so many times that he is our first goalkeeper.
“That has nothing to do with Caoimhin Kellher because he did so well, but Alisson has been so important to this club for so many years and has shown why he is one of the best, or in my opinion, the best in the world.
“Let's hope he can continue to deliver these performances and, above all, that he can stay fit.”
Kelleher, who has announced his intention to leave Merseyside, was left on the bench here in northern Spain despite helping his team storm to the top of the table.
Despite Kelleher's good performances – his only outlier came against Newcastle six days earlier – Alisson was always going to be parachuted back into the team.
And now he finds himself back on a team that has only lost once all season.
Four points clear in the Premier League and now it seems certain that he will finish in the top eight of the Champions League.
This means they will miss the two-legged play-offs in February.
Crucially, the second leg of the matches will be played ahead of Liverpool's scheduled Premier League trip to Manchester City on February 23.
While Slot's team can put their feet on the ground that week, City – possibly – has a play-off match.
Nevertheless, it looks like City are out of the title race and Liverpool will have to make a number of stops in all competitions.
Slot also has the added bonus of being able to rest all players with pain and tension for the remaining league matches against Lille and PSV Eindhoven in January.
However, the Dutchman will be slightly concerned about the performance of his team.
Out of a crowd of around 10,000 people – with limited access while the ground is being renovated – there were just 492 Liverpool fans.
To qualify for points, supporters had to have attended 27 European away matches, including Spartak Moscow in September 2017. Talk about dedication.
One player who made his 235th appearance for Liverpool was Joe Gomez and remarkably he is still waiting for his first goal.
He was denied the moment he must have been dreaming about in the fourth minute when Paulo Gazzaniga, who worked at Spurs and Southampton, among others, showed good reactions to push a header over the crossbar.
Gazzaniga also stopped a well-struck drive from Darwin Nunez, who was then guilty of wasting a few other chances in the first half, especially one before half-time.
It was exactly the kind of performance from Nunez that makes him such a frustrating player.
And Slot admitted that the Uruguayan is having a hard time, as he made five appearances without scoring.
He added: “Every striker around the ball has a period where every ball goes in and sometimes he has a period where he tries so hard and the ball doesn't go in.
“We have other players who can score and Mo did that today.
“We would like to see Darwin score because every striker needs goals and that's why I kept him in for so long, but unfortunately he couldn't score.”
The best chance of the match – until the goal – came in Girona's first attack.
Unfortunately for the home side, the ball fell to Daley Blind – although it will come as no surprise to Manchester United fans that he missed the ball completely from six yards.
Alisson saved Alejandro Frances' successor and then threw out a desperate arm to avoid being beaten at his first post by Miguel Gutierrez.
The Brazilian stopped an effort from an offside Bryan Gil.
But his finest moment came before half-time, when he used both hands to save a decent strike from former Watford midfielder Yaser Asprilla.
Just seconds into the second half, Alisson was at it again, this time denying Arnaut Danjuma.
Girona's defense certainly had little trouble with Liverpool's attack, which seemed to have run out of ideas when Diaz fell to the ground after colliding with Van de Beek.
French referee Benoit Bastien told Diaz to get up as he thought it was a dive.
But after Andy Robertson's shot was saved for a corner, VAR checked the collision.
Bastien was called to the screen and it wasn't long before he pointed to the spot – and Salah avoided the penalty by sending the keeper the wrong way.
Liverpool avoided any late drama to record an 18th win in 21 games for Slot.
When he landed on Merseyside, at no point did he think it would be this easy.
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