Arne Slot lifts lid on Liverpool half-time team talk after issue 'happened too much' vs Bologna

Arne Slot admitted he had to tell his players to increase their pressing intensity after Bologna took control of Wednesday's Champions League match at Anfield towards the end of the first half.

Liverpool started the match encouragingly, opening the scoring after 11 minutes when Alexis Mac Allister turned home from Mohamed Salah 's inviting cross, but the visiting team grew into the game as the match went on and was in the ascendancy going into the half-time break.

Liverpool regained control during the second half, and wrapped up the win when Salah curled home a wonderful strike with 15 minutes of the match remaining, but Slot acknowledged that Bologna provided his players with a stern test on the night, pressing with intensity, man-marking and retaining possession well.

Slot told TNT Sports: "I said during half-time... it's difficult because if you have a team that man marks all over the pitch and you play a long ball and you don't win it and they have the ball again, I see sometimes [our players'] heads go down a bit. 'Again a loss of the ball, again a loss of the ball' - and then they (Liverpool's players) wait too long before they start pressing again, and then you give the initiative away. That happened too much in the first half.

"The second half we started off pressing much better and we had more control in the second half than in the first half. With the ball, it's not easy if they are constantly 1 v 1. I don't think our goalkeeper in the first eight games touched the ball as many times as he did today but he was the only player that was free because they played man v man, then we kept the ball better in the second half than we did in the first."

Asked whether a loss of concentration was to blame for Bologna coming into the match towards the end of the first half, Slot responded: "I don't think it's concentration. I think you could see today that they have a very good idea about football, they kept playing out from the back, but the first goal we scored was a pressing moment from us where they might have taken a bit too much of a risk, which led to a fantastic goal from us. If you play against a team that's comfortable in ball possession, sometimes you have to suffer as well, you have to work hard."