Slot challenges Liverpool players to ‘give their all’ against Galatasaray

Liverpool boss Arne Slot challenged his players to give their all when they take on Turkish champions Galatasaray in Istanbul on match day 2 of the Champions League on Tuesday.

Liverpool edged Atletico Madrid 3-2 in a fiery Champions League opening day win in the 36-team league phase, but lost 2-1 at Crystal Palace in the Premier League at the weekend.

The Premier League champions have overhauled the squad that cruised to the title last season and won their first five games with Slot’s new-look set-up.

The Dutch coach warned Galatasaray presented a major challenge, despite their opening day 5-1 drubbing at Eintracht Frankfurt.

“If you want to compete for trophies, let alone if you wear a Liverpool shirt, (you must) give everything you have, and combine that with the best football you can play,” Slot said.

“They are a very, very good team and have a very good manager,” Slot said at a Monday night press conference in Istanbul.

“The 5-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt was either the quality of Frankfurt, or a little bit of bad luck for Galatasaray,” he said.

“They know what it takes to win the league and know what it takes to win a game of football, so we have to be prepared for that,” said Slot.

Slot has the weapons to win the club’s seventh Champions League crown this season and one of those is assistant Giovanni van Bronckhorst, who coached Galatasaray’s rivals Besiktas in 2024. 

“Gio is one of my assistant coaches so he is part of the set-up if we discuss or talk about the team we face, if that is Palace or Everton or Atletico Madrid or, in this situation, Galatasaray.”

“He has knowledge about Turkish football, he knows these players.”

Slot said that at this level set pieces were crucial.

“We knew Galatasaray were also strong on set-pieces, but I can tell you we won our last Champions League game because of a set-piece,” he said of Virgil Van Dijk’s late winner over Atletico.

Despite cruising to the Premier League title last season, the Reds invested nearly £450 million ($614 million) in transforming their squad during the summer transfer window.

Forwards Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike were part of the recruitment but in their opener against Atletico it was old hand Mohamed Salah who delivered by scoring one and making another with a deflected free-kick.