Arne Slot believes Liverpool players should enjoy spotlight of top four battle - 'The pressure we should embrace'

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Liverpool boosted their hopes of UEFA Champions League qualification with a 1-0 victory over Sunderland, and manager Arne Slot is now encouraging his players to "embrace" the pressure of their top-four battle. Virgil van Dijk's goal was enough to secure the three points on Wearside. The victory came at a cost though, as makeshift right-back Wataru Endo was stretchered off with an ankle injury.

'Every game is a must win' - Slot on pressure to succeed at Liverpool after victory at Sunderland

Video credit: TNT Sports

Arne Slot has urged his Liverpool players to "embrace" the pressure of their battle for a top four spot.

The Reds ended Sunderland's unbeaten home record with a narrow 1-0 win at the Stadium of Light on Wednesday night.

It means they bounced back from a 2-1 home defeat to Manchester City that had dented hopes of finishing in a UEFA Champions League qualification spot.

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They are still only in sixth place in the Premier League, but the gap between them and fourth-placed Manchester United, who slipped up against West Ham on Tuesday, is down to three points.

In their quest to continue competing at Europe's top table, Slot admits the heat is on the Reds to keep picking up results.

"If you play for Liverpool or if you manage Liverpool, every game is must win," Slot told TNT Sports.

"That doesn't change at all. Last season, when we were on top of the league, it felt every time that we needed to win. Now we are in this position, we feel the same.

"But that's the pressure that you should embrace and accept if you play for Liverpool. Otherwise you're in the wrong place."

Victory was only Liverpool's second in their last eight Premier League games. That run includes draws with Burnley and Leeds, two other newly-promoted sides.

Success at the Stadium of Light was only the Reds' second against a team who were in the Championship last season.

Highlights: Sunderland finally fall at home as Van Dijk leads Liverpool to win

Video credit: TNT Sports

Addressing that problem, Slot added: "I think in almost all the other games that we faced against these teams, we deserved more.

"But then, we had so many chances, as we had tonight, but weren't able to score from a set piece.

"Tonight, we weren't able to score from open play. If you look at our chances, that's hardly possible to believe.

"Now, we score from a set piece and that makes, for so many teams in this league, a big difference. It's one of the first times that it makes a difference for us."

Virgil van Dijk was the man to deliver for Liverpool, netting with a flicked header from a corner.

That strike makes him Liverpool's top scoring defender in the Premier League era with 23 goals, one more than Reds icon Sami Hyypia.

But it could have been so much more for the champions, who hit the post in the first half through Florian Wirtz.

That was one of 23 shots they had over the course of the evening, of which only three were on target.

Slot accepts that the finishing touch was the only thing missing from their performance.

"In almost all the things we did, we did really well," he said. "We had to defend a lot of long boys, a lot of set pieces. I think we did that really well.

"We won a lot of second balls and on the ball we were very good.

"The only thing that I can maybe not be so positive about is that if you generate so many chances, you should score more than one goal.

"But today this was enough because we defended very, very, very well in all phases of the game."

Endo injury 'doesn't look good'

One negative for Liverpool from the game was an injury picked up by Wataru Endo.

The 32-year-old was starting his first Premier League game of the season at right-back due to other absentees in that position.

But he was stretched off in the second half with an ankle problem after landing awkwardly following a challenge.

Slot paid tribute to the Japanese international for trying to play on, but added: "His injury doesn't look good. I expect him to be out unfortunately for a quite long time.

In the right full-back, we've had a lot of problems. That's obvious. But what a mentality of him as well. Things really don't look good, but he stayed on the pitch and defended one more set piece.

"That tells you all about the mentality the team and he showed today. That's why we won the game as well."

Liverpool have had significant issues at right-back this season. Conor Bradley will miss the rest of the campaign, while Joe Gomez and Jeremie Frimpong have both spent time on the sidelines.

Slot concluded: "I don't think we have that many injuries, but you notice it earlier with us because our squad is not as deep as some others."

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