Arne Slot blown away by what 'special' Liverpool supporters did in West Ham win - 'Says a lot'

Arne Slot acknowledges the Liverpool fans

Arne Slot has praised the “special” support that backed Liverpool on their way to morale-boosting victory at West Ham United.

Second-half goals from Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo earned the Reds a 2-0 Premier League win at the London Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

It was Liverpool's first away league win in more than two months and ended a run of three successive defeats in all competitions.

A poor run of nine losses in the previous 12 games had increased the pressure on Slot’s position as head coach despite leading the club to a record-equalling 20th championship last season.

But the Reds boss was given audible backing by the travelling fans at West Ham both before and after the game, with chants from supporters recognised by the Dutchman.

Slot

“It says a lot about the club and fans that they were not only supportive of me but the whole team,”

“If you have such a run of form you are having and have an away game, and the away end is so full and supports the team from start to finish, including me, that is special.

“Not only after the 1-0 but 0-0 from start to finish.

“It tells you this club is always together but maybe even more in difficult moments and they appreciate even more what you have done for the club and support you and that is what this makes the club special; to support someone when they are successful is easier than to support someone or a team when things are as tough as they are now.”

Liverpool kept only their fourth clean sheet in 13 Premier League outings this season to move back up into the top half of the table.

And when asked what he was feeling whenGakpo netted the second during injury time

Slot said: “Relief, although I said immediately to my colleagues that it might be handball so I wasn’t surprised it took a while (to be confirmed).

“I was happy when the referee pointed for the kick-off that it was 2-0.

“In terms of results, it is of course very good, but there were also a few things similar than recent games of ours and a few things that were different.

“The things similar were we couldn’t score our first chances, but the good thing was for the first time in many, many, many games, the first chance of the opponent didn’t go in as well. The best thing it was their only chance and it was after 90 minutes.

“It’s happened so many times to us that the first chance the opponent has, it goes in. Then you get a completely different game as we saw so many times now.”

Liverpool had opened the scoring on the hour with Alexander Isak’s first Premier League goal for the club after Joe Gomez – making his first top-flight start in 11 months – had prompted concern in the West Ham defence with a long throw.

Slot

“Not conceding a set-piece and actually scoring from one as it came from a long throw, it took a while, but these are things that are so important if you want to win a game of football,”

“People might say we had more control and didn’t concede as much but it makes quite a difference when you don’t go 1-0 down after five minutes and have to chase the game, at 0-0 you are controlling the game and at 1-0 you are in control even more.”

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