Liverpool boss Arne Slot delighted to reach cup final but focused on next match | OneFootball

Arne Slot hailed a special moment after guiding Liverpool into the Carabao Cup final during his first season, but insisted his thoughts were already on the next game.

The holders booked a Wembley date with Newcastle next month as they comfortably overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit in their semi-final against Tottenham with a convincing 4-0 victory in the Anfield return on Thursday.

Slot is enjoying a superb debut campaign as Reds boss, with his team also leading the Premier League and through to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Rather than basking in his latest success, the Dutchman is already thinking about another competition ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup trip to Sky Bet Championship side Plymouth.

The Liverpool manager said: “It’s pleasant, although if you know me a little bit, my thoughts are more on Sunday already than thinking about the final in the month.

“Our performance was something that pleased me. Reaching a final should always be special, even for this club, because this club is used to playing finals, but still we are working very hard every single day to try to improve players and the players want to improve themselves every single day.

“But we’re also in this business to play finals, although we know how difficult the final is going to be because we faced Newcastle already and they were very impressive yesterday as well.

“But there are many games to be played before that final and this is where our focus should be at.”

Liverpool completely dominated the game and won with little alarm with goals from Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil Van Dijk, while injury-hit Spurs hardly threatened.

Slot said: “Tottenham have so many injury problems, that’s probably the main reason why they are conceding goals.

“But they are always able to score goals as well and create a lot, so for us to be so aggressive without the ball that it took them 80 minutes before they had their first shot on target, should tell you a lot about our work-rate without the ball.”

Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou bemoaned a lacklustre display from his side.

The Australian said: “Look, it’s fair to say we didn’t really get to the levels we needed to.

“It was always going to be a big challenge for us, they’re obviously a very good side and in a great moment with all their players in very good form, very settled.

“But for us to give ourselves an opportunity, we had to be a lot more aggressive with and without the ball and we weren’t. We allowed them to control the game.

“It was a great opportunity for us to get to a final and to let it slip was disappointing.”

With Spurs in the bottom half of the Premier League, the result increases the pressure on Postecoglou but, even though he could point to a lengthy list of absentees in mitigation, he does not care what critics say.

He said: “I don’t worry about being judged or who’s judging. I think ultimately my responsibility is that I try and get the players I have to perform to the best of their abilities and to tackle the challenges we’ve got at the moment.”