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Arne Slot is in town and so is Kieran McKenna. Arguably the two head coaches most spoken about this summer – once Erik ten Hag’s future became clear, at least – went head to head on the opening day and both gave their supporters evidence that there’s plenty of reason for optimism in 2024/25.
Liverpool completed their own mini “Old Farm derby” challenge: three years ago they went to Norwich City on the opening day of the season and beat them 3-0; this time it was Portman Road for their first game and Ipswich Town suffered the same fate, albeit with one fewer conceded. Two scorers that day managed to find the net again here, in Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah; perhaps the reason the Reds spurned so many chances to wrap up the points on this occasion was because their third scorer in 2021 – Roberto Firmino – is no longer at the club.
Ruined symmetry aside, this was far from a procession for Liverpool, and yet it was a match where they were absolutely the stronger, more dominant side. That, along with two other factors, is largely why they ended up with the three points after Ipswich marked their return to the Premier League with a performance of real belief and vigour if a slight lack of final-third presence.
Slot’s team however – early as it is in his tenure after minimal preseason matches – had two new elements that saw them fend off the home side’s pressure and make their quality count: a much greater emphasis on playing in central spaces around and in front of the opposition’s defence, and considerably more patience in making the openings they sought.
More than 30,000 supporters were in place for Ipswich’s first game back in the Premier League in more than two decades; relegated in 2002, they have been to the third tier and back, a club revamped and full of forward-looking optimism once more. That sense of the crowd revelling in their upwardly mobile status was apparent well before kick-off, but the noise reached its crescendo with an almost primal scream of delight soon after the start, when Jacob Greaves went in with a massive slide-tackle on Dominik Szoboszlai, then again with a hint of a half-opening on the edge of the box a moment later.
Yet the football was at times almost a sideshow to the managerial meeting in the technical area. Liverpool are used to having the more active and vociferous coach on the sidelines, but Slot is very different in that regard to Jurgen Klopp: patient and pointing, rather than smiling, stalking, sarcastically laughing and often shouting.
The Dutchman was a calm presence for the most part – but certainly got to raise his voice and temperature after one ferocious challenge from Massimo Luongo on Diogo Jota went unpunished, needing a word to lower his tone from the fourth official.
Instead, it was McKenna, in demand at the start of the summer but settled and decisive with opting to stay at Portman Road, who was the busier and more vocal: note-taking, gesticulating, constantly calling his players and directing their approach on and off the ball. Slot made a change at half-time; McKenna waited only a few minutes longer before readying a first of his own.
Both were active in their own way, Slot holding regular mini-conferences with individuals or groups during stoppages in play and McKenna consistent in his involvement during both defensive and buildup phases of play.
Ipswich had plenty of both, in fairness, though true goalscoring chances were in short supply for them.
It was very close to an hour before Liverpool created any kind of succession of opportunities: Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister saw goalbound shots blocked before Jota guided a header just wide of the far post, when he really should have scored. Before that, it can be argued Ipswich had the better chances, mostly on the counter-attack and rarely actually troubling Alisson Becker.
But, as usual, when the smaller or progressing sides face the elite, it only takes a single moment of switching off to change the course of a game.
One pass played in behind left-back Leif Davis, who had enjoyed the better of the battle with Salah until that point, saw him raise his arm for offside. It wasn’t, not even close, and the No.11 simply ran in and squared for another Jota chance. This time, he couldn’t miss; this time, he didn’t.
Minutes later Salah was off and running himself, tucking in a finish after a loose ball bounced his way.
Ironic cheers of “Liverpool, top of the league” rang out as the Reds did indeed supplant Manchester United on goal difference; if they can maintain that kind of placing after the other 16 teams have also got involved, Slot may feel he’s onto something in quicker-than-expected fashion.
But speed wasn’t the order of the day. It was all about biding their time instead. Liverpool have been famed for having the inevitability of claiming late wins before, but this wasn’t that – just a determined expectation they would do so eventually: find a way by playing their way. They did, and perhaps that’s a first glimpse of how their new Dutch coach expects the team to discover their newest superpower for the season ahead.
