Jamie Carragher admitted to being left ‘surprised’ by one decision from Arne Slot during Liverpool’s win over Southampton this afternoon.
The Reds stretched their lead at the top of the Premier League to eight points as they came from behind to win 3-2 at St Mary’s, with a second-half brace from Mo Salah turning the match on its head.
Elsewhere in the forward line, Cody Gakpo was selected to start ahead of Luis Diaz on the left flank, although that alteration to the starting XI was reversed as part of a double substitution just after the hour mark when the visitors were trailing.
Speaking on co-commentary for Sky Sports, Carragher felt that it was Darwin Nunez rather than the Dutchman who ought to have been called ashore by Slot at that juncture, having believed that the Uruguay striker was ineffective against Southampton.
The former Reds defender said of that substitution: “I’m surprised it’s Gakpo. It would’ve been Nunez for me. He’s [Gakpo] certainly been the most dangerous player. I can’t remember Nunez being involved in one thing in the game. Diaz has done so well as a striker when he’s played up there.”
While it’d be fair to say that neither Gakpo nor Nunez were at their best for Liverpool today, we can understand why Carragher was surprised to see the number 18 being withdrawn for Diaz.
Neither of the two starters seemed to have much joy in the final third against the Southampton defence, and it wouldn’t have been a huge shock to see either being taken off when Slot made that substitution in the 62nd minute.
The statistics from Sofascore suggest that the Dutchman was the more involved of the two, having won 75% of his duels (3/4), completed 93% of his passes (27/29) and both of his dribbles, and whipped in two accurate crosses.
Meanwhile, Nunez made just 10 successful passes out of 15 attempted in 90 minutes on the pitch and lost out in seven of his nine duels. Both he and Gakpo had one shot on target, one key pass and one successful tackle, while they posted broadly similar xG returns (0.15 to 0.12 in the Uruguayan’s favour).
It’s up for debate whether or not Slot made the right call by subbing off the ex-PSV Eindhoven attacker for Diaz, but what we can say with confidence is that the decision to bring on the Colombian was justified as he added a fresh impetus to Liverpool’s attack when they sorely needed it.
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