Liverpool players had never seen Arne Slot angrier as Virgil van Dijk reveals half-time message

The Reds trailed the Premier League’s bottom club before coming back to win 3-1 in the second half

Virgil van Dijk revealed he had never seen Arne Slot angrier than the Liverpool manager was at half-time against Southampton on Saturday.

League leaders Liverpool were trailing 1-0 to the bottom club before Slot, who was confined to the stands by a touchline ban, gave his players a dressing down, made a triple substitution and inspired them to win 3-1.

Captain Van Dijk felt his fellow manager was justified in his irritation about their display in the opening 45 minutes at Anfield but said it was the most annoyed he had seen him.

“Yes but if you look at the first half, he had every right to be angry,” he explained. “And I think from his point of view as well, it was even more frustrating to see.

“But we did what we all wanted in the second half and what he wanted as well and now we move on.

“He wasn’t happy and he had every right to [not be]. No-one was really happy with the first half performance but we are all human beings and we had no intention to play the first half like we did but, unfortunately we did, but we turned it around. And that’s part of football.”

Van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson were involved in the mix-up for Southampton’s goal, scored by Will Smallbone.

And the defender said: “Sometimes these things can happen in football, unfortunately. Apart from that I don’t think there were many problems at all but unfortunately these things happen and it was just miscommunication.”

Van Dijk and Alisson were caught out for Southampton’s shock goal (Getty Images)

Substitute Andy Robertson, who played his part in the comeback, added: “I think we actually started the game quite well in the first five to 10 minutes but the next 35 minutes was nowhere near good enough. I thought we were a bit lethargic, looked a bit tired.”

Robertson came on with Harvey Elliott and Alexis Mac Allister and the Scotland left-back added: “Harvey continued on the high wave from what he did on Wednesday night, he was excellent, Macca has been excellent all season and I know what I can do in moments – drive forward and drive with the team. It made the difference.”