Arne Slot says two Liverpool players impressed him against Newcastle as well as Mo Salah

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Liverpool were somewhat fortunate to escape from Wednesday’s game against Newcastle with a share of the points.

It’s true that the Reds did grasp a draw from the jaws of victory after Caoimhin Kelleher’s late blunder allowed Fabian Schar to steal in at the far post.

But otherwise, Liverpool were not good value for what would have been a smash and grab win over the Magpies.

Nevertheless, the Reds do remain seven points clear at the top of the Premier League table and should feel relatively satisfied with Wednesday’s result.

There were also several very good individual performances to be pleased about.

Mohamed Salah was electric again and the Egyptian has rightly been the man taking the plaudits after his two goal, one assist showing. But according to Arne Slot, there were a couple of other standout performers as well.

Arne Slot hails substitutes impact

Some would argue that Slot got his team selection wrong at St James’ Park.

It was certainly an interesting decision to put Jarell Quansah at right-back with Joe Gomez alongside him at centre-back. Unfortunately, that gamble didn’t really work.

Curtis Jones said Liverpool were ‘terrible‘ in the first-half and it was clear that any impetus was going to have to come from the substitutes bench.

Slot made a triple change on 67 minutes, just after seeing Anthony Gordon put Newcastle back ahead. One minute later, Liverpool were back level.

READ MORE: Pat Nevin can’t believe Arne Slot didn’t start ‘extraordinary’ player for Liverpool vs Newcastle

And speaking in his post-match press conference, Slot praised the performances of both Luis Diaz and Dominik Szoboszlai from the Liverpool bench.

“I think Mo had a massive impact on the game as well. Dom [Szoboszlai] came in really well, Lucho [Luis Diaz] also, but I think in general in the second half we played much, much better than the first half,” he said.

Don’t forget Trent Alexander-Arnold

Although Slot was right to highlight the contribution of Diaz and, in particular, Szoboszlai, he was crucially forgetting the player who came off the bench to make the biggest impact of all.

Trent Alexander-Arnold had only been on the pitch for a matter of seconds when he expertly teed up Salah’s leveller.

The Liverpool academy graduate then repeated the trick 15 minutes later, firing a low ball into Mo, who finished it beautifully.

The two assists mean that Alexander-Arnold is now up to 60 in his Premier League career. Unsurprisingly, he is the first defender in the division’s history to hit that tally.

Szoboszlai also played his part in the what should have been winner from Salah, letting the ball roll through his legs into Alexander-Arnold’s path.

But if we’re highlighting players who came on and changed the game, then it feels wrong not to mention Liverpool’s No.66.