'Getting better' - Arne Slot raves about Liverpool star who was simply 'special' in Wolves victory

Arne Slot insisted he was not surprised that Florian Wirtz finally broke his Liverpool goal duck.

The attacking midfielder got his Reds account up and running with his decisive effort in the 2-1 victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers at Anfield. After Ryan Gravenberch opened the deadlock in the 41st minute, Wirtz doubled the advantage a minute later. He was slipped through by Hugo Ekitike and kept his composure to finish beyond Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa.

Having joined Liverpool for £100 million from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer transfer window, there has been pressure on Wirtz to deliver. He endured a soft launch to his Anfield career, largely because he was adapting to the Premier League.

But having also recorded an assist in the 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur, Slot believes that Wirtz has been making steady progress and deserved his goal. Speaking at his post-match press conference, Liverpool head coach Slot said: "I think I am quite sure it was a relief for him. I could see with his reaction when he scored the goal and it was the same with his team-mates, they were really happy for him.

"In football, rightly so maybe, we mainly get judged on results and individuals mainly get judged on goals and assists and we sometimes forget what else is there to do during a game.

"And I think he has multiple good games for us but I also think he is getting better every game he plays for us. He is getting fitter and fitter and was getting closer and closer to his first goal and it is not a surprise he scores today.

"He will be the first to understand that one goal is not enough. So hopefully he will score many more goals for us than just this one. But I also liked his performance during large parts of the game today, I think he was special in a lot of moments."

Liverpool looked like they were going to ease to victory after a dominant first half. However, their performance level dropped after the break and Santiago Beuno reduced the arrears for Wolves in the 52nd minute, with the Reds’ weakness at set-pieces again exposed.

That set up a nervy finish but the home side managed to hold on. On conceding from another set-piece, Slot said: “I think scoring goals in the Premier League is not easy, I mean in open play. I see this in almost every single game I watch because the amount of set-piece goals scored gets more and more and more. Unfortunately we're maybe the only team that hardly ever scores from a set-piece and, even worse, we constantly concede. But then, I think I said two, three or four weeks ago, we have to make sure that when things go against us – [it] could be a set-piece, could be other things – we still need to find a way to win the game.

“In the last two games we conceded a set-piece but we were able to win and that hasn't happened that many times this season. That's, again, progress for me, but it's obvious there are more things for us to improve and this is definitely one of them. Although, we had a great set-piece – the first one after half-time. It was completely told to the players at half-time – not by me, by someone else – and it was an open chance for Florian but unfortunately it went the wrong side of the post. I think we have been unlucky in multiple situations in our set-pieces; it is 18 games now and we need to improve.”