- 1 year ago
Liverpool boss Arne Slot on their injury issues, Manchester United being better than their results show and the future of Trent Alexander Arnold
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Morning.
00:06The team you're facing, the 4-team, is arguably one of the worst Manchester United sides ever,
00:11do you plan to arrest any players?
00:17So that's a strange question.
00:22No, of course I'm not going to plan to arrest any player because it's a big game,
00:27and I think for me, I said it before the first fixture and I can say it one more time,
00:35they have much better players, in my opinion, than maybe the league table shows at the moment,
00:41and I think it's going to take a while maybe for Ruben Alberin to bring this out of the players,
00:47I don't know, but they will definitely go up,
00:53and they are much, much better than the league table shows at the moment.
00:59Against West Ham, the performance from Mo Salah was incredible,
01:03Trent Alexander-Arnold was fantastic as well, 26, how much better do you think he can get?
01:08There's always room for improvement for every player, so Mo is 32 and he can still do things better,
01:14it's hard to say because he's on such great numbers,
01:18but just before I came in I was checking our game against West Ham
01:24and I saw him at half-time, Mo, walking off the pitch a bit frustrated when we were 3-0 up,
01:31and I think that had to do with him missing a few chances that he's not used to,
01:36but Trent can still improve, I think I saw a bit of improvement already this season,
01:42so these players are top of the world, so there's not a lot of room for improvement anymore,
01:46but there's always a bit of improvement, and especially defensively,
01:50Trent, in my opinion, has made a step up this season.
01:55And I think in some games he was outstanding in every part of the game,
02:00but there's been sometimes a bit of an up-and-down as well in other games.
02:06He could have done a bit better, so it's about consistency for top players,
02:12and that is maybe where the biggest improvement for Trent is.
02:17We've all heard about the bit from Real Madrid about Trent,
02:21have you spoken to him at all since then?
02:24I speak to every player once in a while, and that is the same for Trent.
02:29So, yes, I spoke to him, yeah.
02:34Hi, Arna, can we just check where Ibrahim, Penalty, Joe Gomez and Bradley are
02:38with their recovery, and if you're expecting to be missing anyone else this weekend?
02:43Yeah, Joe is of course not in a good place when it comes to his injury,
02:47he's out for a few weeks, that's for sure,
02:50and Conor and Ibo will train with us today for the first time.
02:54So, yeah, curious and interested to see where they exactly are.
02:59Of course they've worked hard to come back to the team,
03:02but the next step is always how do you handle team sessions?
03:08So they will train with us today.
03:11And the rest of the squad is in good shape as well?
03:14Yeah, of course they still have to come in, but we trained yesterday.
03:18I assume everybody is fit, although we are in a period of time
03:23where some people get sick as well, but nothing heard about that yet.
03:28So hopefully everybody is ready to be part of,
03:31except for Joe Gomez, to be part of the game on Sunday.
03:35You obviously took charge of this club in different circumstances
03:38after that of Ruben Amoran at Manchester United,
03:41but can you sympathise with the pressure he's under
03:44as a manager also taking charge of a Premier League club for the first time?
03:48I think every manager sympathises with every other manager,
03:52because we all know how much pressure this job brings.
03:56That's not different for him than for me or for any other manager
04:01that works in the Premier League, or somewhere else around the world.
04:05This is a job where there's a lot of pressure.
04:07This is also something we like, otherwise we definitely must not do this.
04:11And, like I said, he's done so well at Sporting Portugal,
04:18and again, I think he has a good squad of players as well,
04:24so he will eventually bring the best out of them.
04:28Mo Salah scored and provided two assists last time you two met,
04:32and top scorer in the Premier League as well.
04:35Is there a better player in the world right now than Mo Salah?
04:38That's a question I got after the West Ham game,
04:41and I think it's difficult to compare players,
04:43so if I only look at my own team, not the other teams,
04:47Virgil also has an outstanding season, but he doesn't have the numbers like Mo,
04:52because he's a defender.
04:55So it's difficult to judge players in different positions,
04:59but the numbers Mo has at the moment speak for itself,
05:03and mostly when we talk about the best players in the world we talk about attackers,
05:08so it's been for a long time, Messi and Ronaldo,
05:12so if you simply look at his numbers and the way he's playing,
05:16the work rate he has for the team, he's definitely a great player.
05:24Hi, Jorna, the scrutiny that Premier League managers come under is incredibly intense,
05:30and when results aren't going your way, then you come in for a bit of hammer,
05:34that's happening now for Ruben Hamer and for others,
05:38how difficult though is it as a manager to stick to your principles when things do go wrong,
05:46and you have your own ideas, and yes, there's some flexibility within that,
05:52but when results go against you and you want to stay true to your principles,
05:57how difficult is it to try and turn things around but maintain what it is that's got you to where you are?
06:06That always depends. You can only look at the score,
06:12and sometimes it's difficult to convince players,
06:15but you can also look at the performance, and for example,
06:17I've watched before we played Tottenham the game against Man Utd,
06:23and then when it came to performance, I think there were a lot of things they did really well.
06:29So this is what you can show to the players, but I don't think any manager in this league,
06:35because they are so experienced, they've done so well in so many clubs,
06:41they don't need my advice, but you are asking me what would I do if the results go against you,
06:47you try to focus on performance.
06:51Even though when results go your way, like it is at the moment for us,
06:54I still show the players how small the margins are.
06:59I think we were 2-1 up against Leicester when Mo got quite a big chance in the 18-yard box of Leicester.
07:09We lost the ball, he lost the ball, counter-attack, and they were in front of Alisson.
07:14That was on 2-1, I think somewhere around the 70th minute.
07:17Margins in football when it comes to results are really small,
07:21because this is a low-scoring sport.
07:23If you play basketball or tennis, then mostly the one that's best always wins the game,
07:28but in football that doesn't always happen because it's a low-scoring sport.
07:31So these margins are really small, and then if you only focus on results,
07:35and the last three or four results for United didn't go their way,
07:38but the second-half performance against Newcastle was also really good for them.
07:43So there have been moments in games or longer periods in games that they've played really well,
07:47and I think these are the things you focus on as a manager if the results don't go your way.
07:53This game will mark seven years to the day since Virgil van Dijk made his Liverpool debut,
07:59scoring the winner in a Merseyside derby, so a fabulous start.
08:03You knew a lot about him, of course, before you came here.
08:06What's enabled him to become the Rolls-Royce of a defender that he is?
08:11Even as he gets older there appear to be so few blemishes to his game,
08:15and you can count the mistakes he makes almost on the fingers of one hand.
08:20What is it about him that makes him so special?
08:23Then I have to make a long list, because the best players in the world have so many great attributes,
08:30so I think Virgil has a lot of game intelligence, so he reached the game really well.
08:35He's big and strong, he's fast.
08:39I was impressed by how he is in ball possession.
08:46That was from the first session I did, I was like, whoa, this is someone...
08:52He can delay his choice, he can wait for the last moment to play a ball through the line,
08:56so, yeah, he's a complete player, which is probably the same like Mo,
09:01otherwise you don't belong to the best players in the world,
09:03or THE best player in the world in your position.
09:06So, one of the reasons is that they hardly have anything that is not good enough.
09:11Of course, even for Virgil, there are some things of his game we would like to see,
09:18he could improve on a bit, you're probably going to ask me what, but I'm telling Virgil this.
09:22But he's doing outstanding for us, and one of the things I didn't say now,
09:28but I said in many other press conferences,
09:30he's also the one that leads the team from start to finish,
09:34and we start to finish, I mean, if we go out on the training ground,
09:38the moment I blow my whistle and the exercise starts,
09:41I will hear for sure one player, and that's Virgil.
09:44So he brings a lot of positive energy to the club as well,
09:48and a lot of positive energy in the group.
09:52He's done really well, but that is also the standard at this club,
09:56if you don't perform like this, then you're not good enough anymore to play for this club,
10:00so they have to keep staying at this level to play for this club,
10:04and that's what they've done, Mo and Virgil, for eight years now, maybe?
10:08Mo a bit longer?
10:10Yeah, a bit longer.
10:14Arne, your squad has over 30 league winners' medals in it,
10:20how much stock do you put in that experience, how valuable?
10:23Do you see that being in the second half of the season?
10:2630 league medal winners, that means that the whole team won the league 30 times?
10:32Is that what you mean?
10:34Yeah, maybe sometimes in the same team, but, yeah, OK.
10:37The Premier League team in 1920, obviously still in the squad.
10:41OK. How much difference does this make, that was your question?
10:45How much stock do you put in that? How valuable is that?
10:47It's always important that you have players or staff members that know how to win things,
10:54but I would be surprised if I worked at a club like Liverpool,
10:57you would have told me,
10:59but I don't know of anyone who has won the league in their career,
11:02because we are here at one of the best clubs in the world,
11:05so it's normal that there are players over here that have won many things in their career.
11:10So it is definitely helpful, but the most thing that helps us win games is work rate,
11:17and quality of the players.
11:20Of course, sometimes it can help if you are used to winning big games,
11:25but that's what's quite normal if you play at this club,
11:29that you are used to playing big games.
11:31Have you maybe seen specific moments in tough circumstances in the first half of the season
11:36where you've noticed that kind of...
11:40It goes beyond leadership, but moments where the players are taking it upon themselves
11:45to marshal themselves in situations?
11:47Yeah. Last half-hour against Newcastle I saw players that really stepped up.
11:54A team that really stepped up.
11:57And sometimes I think Southampton was a bit the same,
12:00not the league cup game but the other one, in a difficult position.
12:05So, yeah, definitely some moments, and I can come up with probably some other games,
12:09but the one that really stands out was Newcastle,
12:12I think we had a tough first half, tough first hour.
12:16And then when Trent came in, when Dominic came in,
12:21and from the ones that stayed in the team they found another gear,
12:26and there you could see how special they are.
12:42Do you really think...?
12:44LAUGHTER
12:47What was your response to him?
12:49No, I can completely understand the question you're asking,
12:52but I think you already know the answer.
12:55These conversations I have never shared, not about Trent, not about any other,
13:00what I talked to them about, I just said the same about Virgil,
13:03of course there are things Virgil can improve, I talked to him about this as well.
13:07It was a conversation, as many others we had, me and Trent,
13:13and, yeah, let's leave it to that.
13:17For some players it might be destabilising for that interest,
13:22would it be difficult to come at this stage of the season?
13:25If it would destabilise players at Liverpool, if other people talk about them,
13:31then we would really have a problem, because if you play at one of the biggest clubs in the world,
13:36everybody always for 12 months long is talking about you,
13:41sometimes in relation to other clubs, that happens so, so, so many times for our players,
13:47that if that destabilises them, then we really would have had a problem,
13:52not only now but in the past six months,
13:55because I think there were some talks about our players also in the last six months,
14:01and I don't think they destabilised them at all.
14:11I can tell you that he's playing on Sunday.
14:15That he is. And hopefully he brings the same performances he brought in for the last half-year,
14:21because I think everybody saw how great of a first half of the season he had,
14:26how much he is here, how much he wants to win here.
14:31He played an incredible game against West Ham,
14:34I think we all remember that pass he gave, I think it was second we played to that side,
14:39that was the first half pass he gave to Mo,
14:44so I see him on the training ground every day working his arse off.
14:49So he's fully committed to us, and he will play on Sunday.
14:55If they don't tell me he's sick, but I don't expect them to.
14:59Hi, JĂĽrgen. Around this time last season,
15:01a struggle in Manchester United's side off the back of a few home defeats
15:05came to Anfield to face a Liverpool team looking to go top of the table.
15:08Liverpool had 34 shots that day, they didn't score any of them.
15:12So what do you think is the key to making sure the dominance in the league table
15:16is reflected in the final scoreboard?
15:18Yeah, the things I've said many times, if you want to win a game you have to outwork the opponent,
15:24then second of all you need a good balance in set-pieces,
15:28especially in the big games against quality players.
15:32And then if that is balanced out or that is the same,
15:35then it's mostly about the quality of the players.
15:39So if you have 34 shots, that tells me you need a bit of luck as well sometimes during a game.
15:45But maybe it was also really well defended by United, I don't remember the game really well,
15:51so maybe they threw themselves in front of a ball every time,
15:54that's also part of winning games.
15:57We need to be prepared in the best possible way,
16:02because every game in the Premier League is a difficult one,
16:07but especially a game where you face quality players,
16:11I think we'll feel, OK, this is a chance for us to make their fans proud again.
16:18So if they do the same winning at West Ham United away, the fans will like it,
16:24but it's even more important for them to win here at Anfield.
16:27And then quality players are always dangerous if they set their mind to something,
16:32so we have to be really, really well prepared to beat United.
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