Slot on Liverpool's tricky 2-0 Bologna UCL win

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Slot on Liverpool's tricky 2-0 Bologna UCL win  02/10/2024  Anfield, LIverpool, UK

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00:00Good evening, everyone.

00:02Good evening, everyone.

00:27Arnaud, well done, how was your first experience of a Champions League night at Anfield?

00:31A good one, because it was a win. It wasn't an easy one,

00:35but that's normal if you play in the Champions League,

00:38there's always a lot of resistance, a lot of good teams play in the Champions League,

00:43and Bologna is one of them.

00:45You could also see the results tonight, where we saw maybe some surprising results,

00:49so it was good to win, clean sheet, some good individual performances, so positive overall.

00:56I think I heard you say in an interview earlier as well that there was room for improvement,

01:00and you also said that after Wolves.

01:02What does it say about your side when you're not necessarily at your best levels

01:05that you're able to churn out wins like this?

01:08Yeah, the thing is, you will probably never reach perfection,

01:12you're always aiming for perfection but you will never reach this.

01:16But we can improve, we have to improve, that's clear,

01:21but there are also a lot of positives to take from tonight and also from the other games.

01:26There was a spell in the game where I think we didn't control,

01:29they were threatening us more than I would like to see.

01:33But, again, this is normal, I saw a lot of games yesterday,

01:37I saw some games before we played in the Champions League,

01:40it's never that only one team plays, there are always two teams playing,

01:43and I think for the most part of the game we controlled,

01:47we had more ball possession, but they threatened us,

01:50especially in the last phase of the first half a few times as well.

01:54Alright, could you just ask about Mohamed Salah,

01:56because he scored a very good goal for Liverpool's second,

01:59he became the first Liverpool player to score in five Champions League home matches for them.

02:04In five?

02:05Five Champions League home games for Liverpool.

02:08Ah, OK. Yeah, what can I say about Mo?

02:12What you saw today is what you get.

02:15If you bring him often enough in positions like this,

02:18he can score a goal, he had a great assist as well.

02:21The second one, if you look at the way he scores it,

02:24I can understand everybody is talking about the finish,

02:27because it was a fantastic finish.

02:29He had almost the same one just before,

02:32but it wouldn't do justice to Virgil, Diogo, Dom and Trent

02:37if we only talk about the great finish,

02:40because Virgil played a fantastic ball through, Diogo dropped,

02:44Dom was again involved in the first goal as well,

02:49and Trent made a crucial overlapping run,

02:52because that opened up the space on the inside for Mo to do what Mo always does.

03:05Hi, Arne, I want to ask you about Bologna.

03:07Were you surprised by the way they played?

03:09Not surprised, because we analysed them really well.

03:13I said yesterday already this team only lost once, and that's not a coincidence.

03:18They were 1-0 up for a long time until the last minute against Atalanta and Bergamo,

03:22and this club knows how good Atalanta and Bergamo are.

03:26So I was not surprised, but maybe I was impressed with how they were playing here,

03:33not afraid to play the ball out from the back,

03:36and not afraid to play man-for-man all over the pitch for 90 minutes long.

03:43If I then look at us, but maybe the other manager will say that's what we create,

03:49but the amount of times we could have played the last ball in an overload,

03:54so we had more players than Bologna had,

03:57but then missed out on the pass, that happened far too much for us.

04:01But, yeah, maybe that's also a quality of them.

04:06You've had a few months to work with Darwin Nunez,

04:10how do you see him in his form?

04:15He didn't have a great Copa America, he's scored one goal for Liverpool since April,

04:21and today he may have looked a little bit off the pace?

04:25I don't think it's really honest to say he only scored one for Liverpool,

04:29because you also have to look at the playing time he got,

04:32and I think it was his first start of the season.

04:36I don't look at it in the way you do, that only focus on the individual.

04:41I think in the first hour we didn't create a lot of chances for him as well,

04:45because we missed out on the last pass on numerous occasions.

04:49If we would have done better, that probably would have led to chances for him as well.

04:54His home game again, was it Bournemouth? Great goal, yeah.

05:00He was also involved in a team we faced that was really hard and tough on him,

05:05and his team-mates didn't always find him when they could have.

05:10So, yeah, it's a bit early after three games to say he only scored one,

05:16for me that's a bit too early.

05:19Last microphone for Theo on this side.

05:29Just going back to Mo Salah, another great performance, a goal and an assist,

05:33he's thriving in the Premier League, he's thriving in the Champions League,

05:36surely he should be on this stage again next season, he's not slowing down?

05:40Yeah, I was just thinking about the answer I gave just a second ago,

05:44I think before Wolves Mo played three games without scoring a goal.

05:49In football it can happen that sometimes in three games you score one or you don't score,

05:54but these players, like Mo, like Darwin, like all the others,

05:58they will always score their goals if you just keep playing them.

06:02The thing is, I can't play them all, but it's good to have them,

06:06and they will always score their goals.

06:08And Mo has done really well today, and I'm happy with the way he does at the moment,

06:12and I'm looking forward to next season as long as we have six group games to play,

06:18and hopefully many others to come afterwards.

06:23Arne, you mentioned yesterday Bologna's man-marking approach,

06:27how important was Ryan Gravenberg tonight in terms of getting out of tight situations

06:31and then putting your team on the offensive?

06:34He just seems to be going from strength to strength at the moment.

06:37Yeah, there are a few ways how to overload or outplay them,

06:42and one of them definitely is a player that can drive with the ball,

06:46dribble with the ball, outplay someone,

06:48because if you then outplay someone you immediately have an overload.

06:51And that is what happened, I think, after two or three minutes already,

06:54when Ryan turned away again from a good pass from Virgil.

06:59He was outstanding again today, Ryan, with his dribbling ability.

07:06And that was important against this team, but if we only focus on the dribbles he had,

07:11we forget maybe how important he is without the ball,

07:14where he does a lot of work and wins a lot of second balls as well.

07:18Andy, last one.

07:27Arno, you're the first Liverpool manager or head coach in history

07:30to win eight of his first nine games,

07:33what conclusions do you draw from that short sample size?

07:37Yeah, I don't draw many conclusions to that, but it is nice.

07:44So many incredible managers have worked here, doing so many special things.

07:49The only thing is, I don't hope that the only thing where people remember me

07:54in one, two, three years, you never know how long I can be here,

07:57but if they only say,

07:59yeah, that's the manager that only won eight of his nine games,

08:02I'm hoping to do more special things than winning eight out of nine games.

08:06But it says a lot about many things,

08:08it also says a lot about how Jürgen left this club,

08:11the squad I inherited, how much work the players put in,

08:15and how much my staff members are helping me to get these results.

08:19But again, hoping to do more special things

08:22than only be remembered for eight wins out of the first nine.

08:26Thank you, everyone.

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