Liverpool's Slot on Konate and Jones fitness, Ipswich's bad luck with results and Reds professionalism (Full Presser)

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Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes Ipswich have been unlucky with their results this season and gave his full backing to boss Kieran McKenna, whilst also discussing the fitness of Ibrahima Konate and Curtis Jones Melwood, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:00I am, you too?

00:07Yeah, I went out during half-time, so it's mostly not a good sign,

00:19and it wasn't because he will not be available for the game tomorrow.

00:23The rest, we have to wait and see how long it's going to take.

00:27I'm not expecting months, of course, but let's see if he's available for PSV or Bournemouth.

00:36Jürgen Mbappé also told us in the week that he's playing through pain at the moment,

00:40with his name not fully recovered from it.

00:43What concerns do you have over that, how you're managing that day-to-day?

00:47I think you've seen how we try to manage that.

00:50We skipped him twice, didn't we?

00:54At least in this game Jorel played, and he didn't play well in the Akron Standing Game.

01:02That is a bit maybe because he still has some pain of his knee,

01:08don't exaggerate it, but he probably feels a bit.

01:13But it's safe for him to play, but it's more the loads where you're aware of

01:18if a player is out for five or six weeks and then play him every three days,

01:21that's, in our opinion, a certain risk, so we always try to manage that.

01:26I think he now comes to a moment where he would be able to play three times a week.

01:31Ipswich was your first game in charge,

01:33I think back then there wasn't the expectation that you were going to win the Premier League,

01:38I think certainly outside the club there seems to be the expectation now

01:41that Liverpool are going to win the Premier League this season,

01:44so what difference do you see in your side now compared to that first game against Ipswich?

01:51No, not a lot, but the fact was that I only worked with 13 to 14 players

01:58for one and a half weeks back then,

02:00so there's not being said about sometimes how difficult it is to come in the middle of a season

02:05and try to work with a new team with the schedule we are having.

02:10But to be fair, it maybe felt a bit the same for me,

02:15because 12, 13, 14 players came in one and a half weeks before the start of the season,

02:20and from that moment on we only played games,

02:22so it's normal I think that we've improved compared to that game.

02:29Although especially the second-half performance was something

02:34that was quite similar to the performances I see currently.

02:39With that in mind, how much do you think Ipswich will be a different proposition

02:44now that we've gotten used to lighting this league a little bit

02:47and taking some big points off some top teams?

02:49Yeah, they've done, and they've been a bit unlucky sometimes in the last moments of games.

02:54I think I've said this a few times recently,

02:57that the second-half of the season is always more difficult than the first-half,

03:00because some teams strengthen themselves during the winter break,

03:04some teams, of all the teams, not all of them,

03:08but many teams work with their manager for half a season,

03:11and that normally leads to a team becoming better.

03:16And that's definitely the situation also for Ipswich,

03:19although they've made it really difficult for us already in the first game of the season.

03:23But I think it's fair to say that they've improved during the first half of the year,

03:29and that is also a compliment to Kieran McKenna.

03:34He already made it really difficult for us in the first game,

03:39but I think the few games afterwards were more difficult for them.

03:43But then at a certain point they've become a very good team

03:47that makes it difficult for every team,

03:49except maybe their last game, which was an exception to the rule.

03:54And maybe that was because City was City again.

03:58A word that keeps getting repeated again and again in comments about your performances,

04:04particularly in the one against Lille, was professional.

04:07Is that a word you like to hear when people talk about you?

04:11Is that something you like to judge yourself on?

04:14It's better than that they call us amateurs!

04:16LAUGHTER

04:19Yeah, I think you guys, not until now, it hasn't been asked yet,

04:24but the amount of questions I get about Mo and how would you describe him,

04:28so it's every time you have to find a new word or say something new again,

04:33or try to come up with something new.

04:34That's a bit similar to what we are doing.

04:38Because we're doing so well, many people talk about us

04:41and it's difficult to every time come up with something new.

04:44Now, it's been exciting probably, all kinds of words have been used,

04:48and at the moment, if I listen to you, the word professional is there.

04:53I don't exactly know what that might mean then,

04:56does this mean that we are controlling the game?

04:59Do we end up being very business-like, you don't know where it's going to end up?

05:05OK, yeah, I don't know if it's meant positive or negative.

05:08What I see is that we've got a lot of ball possession,

05:10that we dominate and control every single game.

05:12In every single game we've got more chances than the other team.

05:16In every game we deserve to win, or if we don't win we would have deserved it.

05:22Except for one game maybe, and I've said it many times,

05:24that was the Chelsea game, where maybe a draw would have been more fair.

05:30But in every other game we've played, I think we were the dominant team,

05:34not because we go into a low block and kick every ball forward,

05:38because of a certain style.

05:40Yeah, it's up to anyone how you would describe that style.

05:44Professional, yeah, OK.

05:49Yeah, that's a good thing then.

05:52Given Harvey Elliott has said this is his club he wants to stay in,

05:57his recent performances, how close is he to starting, and what does he hope to do?

06:03Keep bringing performances in like he did,

06:05and keep working as hard on the training ground as he's doing as well.

06:10I always say to the players, it's not only about you,

06:12it's also about the competition you are in.

06:16And in his situation, he's in competition

06:18with five very good midfielders that you know,

06:22and there are a few youngsters coming through that are very talented as well,

06:26but they are not close to playing time yet.

06:29But he's in competition with Wata, with Ryan, with Curtis, with Maka,

06:38and himself, so these are the midfielders we have at the moment.

06:42So he has to bring up performances like he does,

06:44and then playing time will probably increase, it increases more, yeah, it will increase.

07:02I think he's already very good.

07:06So it's a centre-back that without him even touching the ball,

07:13you already feel quite impressive, because he's so strong and tall.

07:19And I think one of the things he could improve, in my opinion at least,

07:25is his play with the ball, bringing the ball out from the back.

07:30I would not say he was poor in that, but he could improve,

07:33he could go to another level, and I think he works really hard to improve that,

07:37and I already see this improvement.

07:39Defensively, he's of the highest standard.

07:44I think he's fast, he's strong, he wins duels through the air, over the ground,

07:49he can cover for his teammates as well if needed,

07:53he can play 1v1 with a lot of space in his back,

07:56so defensively there's not a lot he could or can improve.

08:01But bringing the ball out from the back, which is not his single job,

08:05it's also his teammates that he needs for that.

08:10It's something we've worked on a lot and we still keep on working on a lot,

08:13not only with him but with the others as well.

08:16Because from all the ball possession we have,

08:18we would like to create even more chances than we are doing now.

08:22And that starts from bringing the ball out from the back.

08:25Karl?

08:27Hi. Andy Robertson has been the first-choice at the back for a long time,

08:31there's been a lot of rotation in that position this season,

08:36is that managing workload or is it something that Kostas' level is starting to improve?

08:44I think both. If Kostas was on a completely different level than Robbo,

08:51then it would not be smart to rotate in that position or manage the load,

08:56because then you drop so far in quality that could be a risk.

09:00But I don't know what Kostas' situation was last season,

09:04I know that he didn't play a lot but I don't know where he was at which level.

09:08But from the moment I came in, in our tour in the United States, he did really well.

09:13So he's proved that he can play in the full-back position as well.

09:19And since we've got now two good options, in my opinion,

09:22you can indeed see that we are managing loads and rotate in that position quite a bit.

09:28Yes, that's true.

09:30Hi, Armin. When Ipswich went to the Emirates earlier this season,

09:34Arsenal ended up with an 84 per cent possession in the first half.

09:37You've spoken just now about the idea of wanting to turn more possession into chances.

09:42When a team is so happy to surrender the ball,

09:44what's the key to doing that and putting them under pressure without having attempts on goal?

09:49Yeah, that's not always easy.

09:52My former club Feyenoord played during the week against Bayern Munich,

09:55and no-one would have expected that result.

09:58But it also shows you, I think Bayern had 80 per cent ball possession,

10:03how difficult it is against a low-block,

10:06if a low-block works that hard, as Feyenoord did, and Ipswich did as well,

10:11to create chance after chance after chance.

10:14I think you also see this back in the days when my assistant John Huytinga

10:20played for the Dutch national team, when they then played Gibraltar,

10:23not to compare Feyenoord or Ipswich with Gibraltar,

10:26but even lower level like Gibraltar, if they went to a low-block it was 10-0.

10:30But if these teams do it now, it ends up being 4-0, 3-0,

10:35so you don't see these results with such a big margin,

10:39with the exception of City last week.

10:42But I don't think Ipswich went to a low-block constantly in that game.

10:48So it shows you how difficult it is if players are well-trained, well-managed,

10:53and play with a lot of intensity and willingness not to concede,

10:58how difficult it is to score goals against any team in the world,

11:02let alone against a Premier League team.

11:05I think we faced this against United, we faced this against Forest,

11:10we faced it a bit against Brentford as well, these low-blocks.

11:17So, yeah, it's difficult for every single team everywhere in Europe.

11:22So do you think this might be a game where the team and fans have to be a bit more patient?

11:29You mentioned the game against Man City, where obviously it was a big score,

11:33do you think there's a little danger that some people might come into it thinking,

11:36well, that's going to be the same again?

11:38No, that is difficult for fans, and my father is a fan as well,

11:43and when I call him after the game he can also say,

11:45oh, it wasn't as exciting as other games of Liverpool when he watched the game against Lille.

11:51And then I have to try to explain to him that these games you can easily lose

11:58if you're starting to force all kinds of difficult balls.

12:02But he's not always agreeing with me, Dan!

12:06LAUGHTER

12:10But as a manager I was quite happy with our performance against Lille,

12:14because they were a team that are so well-organised and so much control,

12:18and I think there was one moment in the game I can remember

12:21that Curtis tried to play at the halfway line a bit of a ball that wasn't a bit of a risk,

12:27and we lost that ball and they counter-attacked us.

12:31So that's the risk you have if you play against a low-block team.

12:34Forrest is probably the best in the league if you play these stupid balls,

12:39which I call stupid balls, which my father would love to see us playing a bit more.

12:43That is the risk of them creating much more chances,

12:50and there's a difficult balance between taking the risk and conceding a lot,

12:54or having control, maybe not create as much,

12:58but against this team going 1-0 down, like we've seen against Forrest,

13:03is even a bigger problem than if you are especially against a low-block.

13:11So it's a balance we have to find, and I can understand it's sometimes difficult for fans as well

13:16that come to the stadium to see us winning,

13:20but hopefully us scoring a lot of goals in an exciting match.

13:24But, yeah, you need two teams for that, and the better we do,

13:28the less likely it is that teams come to Anfield and say,

13:30OK, let's go to a high press and let's press them all over the pitch.

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