Slot: “Nice” to See Salah Score

Anfield’s gloom has lifted, if only for a night, after Liverpool dispatched Brighton & Hove Albion 3-0 to reach the next stage of the FA Cup, offering manager Arne Slot the clearest evidence yet that his evolving tactical demands are finally taking hold.

The victory, secured with a clean sheet and a flurry of second-half goals, arrives at a pivotal moment for a side that has spent the autumn and early winter searching for rhythm. Slot, ever candid, singled out Mohamed Salah for special praise, noting both the Egyptian’s return to the scoresheet and his renewed willingness to track back.

“It’s very nice to have him on the scoresheet again and him having an assist,” Slot said. “But I think what I like the most at the moment… he also helps the team a lot defensively. That is something very positive – what the team also needs.”

The Dutch coach admitted that earlier in the campaign Liverpool “struggled a lot” to sustain intensity across congested fixtures, a shortcoming that coincided with a brief experiment to free Salah from some pressing responsibilities. The recalibration appears to have ended: Salah’s defensive graft on Sunday was matched by the industry of Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez and Florian Wirtz, all of whom Slot believes are “now capable of playing at this intensity level every three days.”

Kerkez, the Hungarian left-back, was the standout, delivering a performance worthy of the man-of-the-match accolade against a Brighton side that never found a foothold. From back to front, Liverpool dictated tempo, rarely allowing Fabian Hürzeler’s visitors to settle and sealing a result that, while only one game, hints at a broader upward curve.

Slot stopped short of declaring the corner officially turned, stressing that the club must stack positive results to erase the early-season deficit and keep alive a push for Champions League qualification. Yet the past “seven, eight, nine, 10 games,” he insisted, reveal “the future looks really bright for this club with these players.”

For supporters who have spent months riding a roller-coaster of erratic league form, the comprehensive nature of the Brighton win offers tangible hope. The challenge now is replication: Liverpool must maintain this standard through the spring if they are to claw back lost ground and secure a seat at Europe’s top table next season.