Arne Slot copies Jurgen Klopp with angry dig after Liverpool beat Bologna in Champions League tie

No team were given more Saturday early kick-off times than Liverpool during Klopp's nine-year reign in charge at Anfield.

Slot had his first taste of the 12.30pm slot earlier this season away to Ipswich and he made reference to Klopp's bugbear after the match.

“When I started here there were many things that have been told to me and one of them was Jurgen hated the 12.30pm kick-off,” Slot said.

“The team showed we hate the 12.30pm kick-off because we were not in the game in the first half.

But the Liverpool manager is not happy about the Premier League and its broadcasters following their victory over Bologna with the Reds back in action on Saturday in the early kick-off against Crystal Palace.

He moaned: "Even more difficult fixtures are coming up, starting on Saturday where we play a 12.30pm kick-off after playing on an evening Champions League on Wednesday."

Liverpool were made to work for all three points against Bologna in their second Champions League match of the season.

Alexis Mac Allister gave the hosts the lead early on, but Liverpool were second best for the remainder of the first half as Bologna pushed for an equaliser.

Alisson came to Liverpool's rescue on several occasions with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate playing at the top of their game to keep Bologna's attackers at bay.

Liverpool eventually got back on top in the second half with Mohamed Salah making sure of all three points with a curling effort from the edge of the box.

Slot reserved special praise for Ryan Gravenberch in midfield for his 'outstanding' display once again.

However, the Liverpool boss was unhappy with the way his players reacted to Bologna's spell of dominance in the first half.

"It's difficult," Slot said.

"If the other team plays man-marking all over the pitch and you play long and you don't win it and they have the ball again, I see sometimes heads go down.

"Then they wait too long until they start pressing again and then you give the iniative away.

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"In my opinion that happened a bit too much in the first half.

"Second half we started off pressing much better and we had more control in my opinion in the second half than we had in the first half.

"With the ball, it's not easy if they are constantly one-on-one. I don't think our goalkeeper in the first eight games touched the ball so many times as today but he was the only player who was free because they played man-marking."