Arne Slot's Quansah comments after Liverpool win leave Gary Lineker 'nervous'

Arne Slot's review of Jarell Quansah's performance after Liverpool's 2-0 win over Ipswich Town made Gary Lineker "nervous" .

Despite claiming an opening day win at Portman Road over the Tractor Boys, Liverpool boss Slot made a huge call at half-time, taking off Quansah for Ibrahima Konate. Speaking after the game, Slot bluntly revealed his side did not win enough duels, which was part of the reason behind Quansah's substitution.

"'The first thing I said at half-time was we don't have to speak about tactics if you lose so many duels, and that's what we did," Slot told reporters after the game. "It's not that Jarell lost every duel, many of us lost too many duels, so we needed Konate to win these long balls in the air towards their No.9 [Liam Delap], so that helped and gave us control.

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"But they put so much energy into the first half, running, fighting, playing all over the pitch one v one, and I don't think they could keep up with that tempo in the second half."

After the break, Liverpool looked much better. While Ipswich tested them in the first half, the Reds ran out 2-0 winners thanks to goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah . However, speaking on his podcast 'The Rest is Football', Match of the Day host Gary Lineker admitted he was a bit nervous following Slot's remarks about Quansah, going further to state he did not believe it was something former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp would have done.

What did you make of Arne Slot's decision to substitute Jarell Quansah? Let us know in the comments section below.

"It is interesting we were talking about Arne Slot and that change he made at half time," said Lineker. "That's speaking out publicly about a player's performance. That's not something you would have ever heard under Jurgen Klopp so there's already a slight difference there. I'm always slightly nervous when managers are publicly critical of players."

That then prompted a reply from Alan Shearer who said: "It wasn't an experienced player though, was it? Not so sure he would've done it in that case." He added: "It's easier to do it with a younger player than it is a big hitter and, to be fair, his decision worked. But I thought that as well Gaz when he said that."

Liverpool.com says: "Jarell Quansah's substitution can both be viewed as harsh and necessary by Liverpool fans. Ultimately, Slot's change at half-time helped the Reds go on to win the game against Ipswich comfortably, despite facing pressure at times during the opening 45 minutes.

"Liverpool view Quansah as a supremely talented defender and there's every chance that by substituting the 21-year-old against Ipswich could drive him forward, and set the standard for the rest of Slot's squad in terms of expectations from the new manager."