Arne Slot says Liverpool 'mentally much stronger than last season'

Arne Slot believes Liverpool's performance in Wednesday’s Merseyside derby showed his table-topping players are mentally stronger than last year.

Liverpool were far from their best in the cauldron-like atmosphere as Goodison Park hosted its final Merseyside derby, and were denied victory when James Tarkowski struck eight minutes into time added on to earn Everton a 2-2 draw amid chaotic scenes.

Slot’s immediate reaction led to him being shown a red card after the final whistle but, having taken time to reflect on the game, the Dutchman pointed to the positives.

"I think the players… really stood up in a positive way," he said. "Mentally being so strong in those circumstances if you don’t play your best game.

"Part of our game plan was, of course, to prevent them from playing so many balls into our box but it’s difficult to prevent that if you concede 20 free-kicks.

"Then you just have to act (on) what is their strongest asset maybe, playing the balls in with all these centre-backs and full-backs coming up. And apart from the first goal we conceded from a free-kick, I think we defended that really well.

"Players showed that they are more than 11 quality individuals that can play together in ball possession so well. They also showed they have great mentality again in, what I’ve experienced until now, the most difficult circumstances we played until now."

Slot believes that mental strength will help Liverpool as they seek a 20th top-flight title. Going into the weekend they sit seven points clear of Arsenal with 14 games to go.

"Of course we would’ve loved to go nine points (clear) but we take a lot of positives from the game as well, not football-wise (because) we didn’t play our best game in terms of ball possession," he added.

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