Liverpool's Slot on Van Dijk's new deal, Leicester and the title race and summer plan (Full Presser)

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Liverpool manager Arne Slot on Virgil Van Dijk's new deal, their Premier League clash with Leicester and the title race and their big summer transfer plans Melwood, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:00Morning.

00:01Morning.

00:02In blue again.

00:11First of all, Arne, obviously Virgil committing his future to the club on the back of Mo doing the same.

00:15What kind of statement do you feel the club is making by tying those two down?

00:20It tells you that we want to keep our best players,

00:25the players that have played a great season for so many years in a row now,

00:29and that we are able to keep them when they are a free agent,

00:34tells you probably the ambitions we have for the upcoming years.

00:39I'm really happy that the both of them extended Virgil.

00:44We've spoken about Mo last week and Virgil has been so important for us,

00:48defensively, offensively, in and around the dressing room.

00:52Great personality and a great football player.

00:57Obviously then I have to ask you about Trent as well.

01:00What message do you hope the fact that two out of the three have signed sense to him,

01:04and do you know yet what decision he's made regarding his future?

01:07Nah, I think you would be surprised if I answer differently now than I've answered for the whole season.

01:13It's nice that we've done already two announcements and we can talk about that for hours,

01:20but if you want to talk for hours about me, about Trent,

01:23then it's for hours the same answer.

01:25We don't talk about these things as long as things are not done yet,

01:29and they aren't, so that's why we don't talk in public about this situation.

01:33But I take it though, like you did with Mo and with Virgil,

01:37you would still hope that Trent would see his future here?

01:40Trent is coming back from an injury, he trained with us yesterday,

01:44and every time he plays with us and trains with us he shows his commitment,

01:48he shows how he's worked so hard to be back already now,

01:52and the moment he's on the pitch he shows me what a great football player he is,

01:56and how much he's involved in us trying to achieve our goals this season.

02:01He's worked so hard during the whole season and now in his rehab

02:04to be back with the team again, and the fans of Liverpool,

02:09everyone who watches football for the last five, six or seven years

02:13knows that he's an incredible full-back,

02:16has been an incredible full-back for this football club,

02:20and let's see what the future means.

02:22Ready for this weekend, Trent?

02:24Not to start, but if today and tomorrow things go well he might be on the bench,

02:31but definitely not to start because he's out for five and a half weeks,

02:35and this is today probably his first session with the team,

02:38it was Wednesday I think he did parts of the team session,

02:43so he's not able to start but hopefully he can be able to join us

02:47because for Conor he's been out for a long time,

02:50so for him to play 90 is easy as well.

02:52So it would be nice if Trent is with us during the weekend.

02:57The goal is obviously to get over the line,

02:59what thought have you given that this weekend could be the weekend

03:01that you clinched the Premier League title?

03:03Well, my thoughts are not on that at all, my thoughts are as always on Leicester and on our team,

03:10how to improve, what can we do better,

03:12so we could do many things better in the first half against West Ham,

03:16we could do a lot of things better in the second half,

03:18so during the start of the week we've worked on that a lot,

03:22and now we are working towards Leicester one game at a time and influence the one we can influence on,

03:30and that's the Leicester game.

03:31Arne, have you not given it any thought what this weekend might hold and what next weekend might hold?

03:39The honest answer is no, but I'm not sure if you believe me, but that is the honest answer.

03:50My whole life I'm living in the moment, in the day, and I'm not looking backwards a lot,

03:55and I'm not looking forward a lot because it's the type of person that I am,

04:00that I'm not constantly looking back at what I've achieved at former clubs.

04:03That is also so difficult in football, people constantly tell you try to enjoy,

04:08try to enjoy the whole journey and blah blah blah,

04:10but the only thing as a manager thinking of,

04:12oh, during the weekend there's a game coming up as well,

04:15and we need to win that, and we need to win the next, and we need to win the next.

04:18So maybe that's one of the reasons because I'm already so long in football

04:23that you get used to the fact of living day by day and trying to influence day by day.

04:30Fair enough. Just going back to Virgil then,

04:34how important a figure do you feel he is for this football club?

04:39It's almost difficult to describe because you know how important he is when you see him play.

04:47So that's what we all see.

04:49Everybody has given him compliments over the years so many times about how good he is as a defender.

04:56I mostly watch football and looking at ball possession,

05:04so he's so, so, so good at bringing the ball out from the back.

05:08His diagonal passes are of course known by everyone towards Mo,

05:13but the amount of times he plays balls through the lines, the timing when he passes it.

05:17And then the leader he is in and around this AXA training centre,

05:23that is something I haven't worked with a player like him in terms of leadership.

05:29So the energy he brings to the team in every single training session.

05:32And how professional he is for himself but also tries to influence his teammates,

05:39especially the younger ones. I think Ryan is a great example of that.

05:42He's constantly on him, trying to make him even more of a professional than Ryan already is.

05:50But Ryan wasn't used to playing so many games, so he's constantly on him.

05:53So he's having a big influence at this club.

05:57But the main influence he has is of course in the weekend,

06:02and that is also the thing he has to focus on mostly.

06:06But the good thing with him is he also attributes here at the AXA,

06:10and hopefully he can do that in the upcoming two seasons as well.

06:15You say upcoming two seasons, I just wonder with Virgil,

06:18how long do you think he can play at the very highest level for?

06:21In recent years we've seen Thiago Silva play at 39 for Chelsea in the Premier League.

06:26Has Virgil got the potential to be at that level for many years to come?

06:31That is difficult because I can only judge him on the quality he has now,

06:37and I'm not an expert in what is then the reason why Thiago could do this

06:43and what you need to have to do.

06:45The one thing that first comes to my mind is to stay fit.

06:48If a player at any age is out for two or three months,

06:52I've noticed that this season even more than the years I've worked at different clubs,

06:58because I think here this is the highest level there is in football, the Premier League,

07:02and if you're out here for two or three months it's quite hard for players

07:05to come back immediately to their old level.

07:08So my first take is stay fit, and if he would stay fit I see no reason why he would regress,

07:15and the club as well, otherwise we wouldn't have given him a two-year contract.

07:21A lot of talk among fans about the number nine position

07:25and how different players have played that role this season.

07:28I just wonder going forward what kind of qualities do you want in your number nine,

07:32and what would suit your tactics from that position ideally going forward?

07:37Do you want a difficult answer or a simple answer?

07:40Let's go somewhere.

07:41The simple answer is what you want from a number nine – goals.

07:45That's why you play a forward, not only a winger but also your number nine.

07:50So he needs to produce goals.

07:52And apart from that, I think in modern-day football a number nine,

07:57like a right winger, like a midfielder, like a defender,

08:00they need to work hard and be part of an intense pressing team.

08:04If you look at the teams that are now playing in the semi-final of the Champions League,

08:10they are all 11 players that work their ass off.

08:14Is that – or can I – yeah, that's still okay?

08:18Apologies for the language.

08:19Yeah, apologies for the language.

08:21So that is also what I'm expecting from our number nine,

08:24that he's part of an intense pressing team.

08:27But in the end it's helpful that the number nine of Liverpool,

08:32or at any team in the world, scores goals.

08:35That was the short answer.

08:37The last five-five.

08:38Now that they're both done, Arno,

08:40are you able to give us any insight on how impressed you've been

08:43with how Mo and Virgil have not let any of the contract talk

08:47and obviously what's been going on this season impact anything at all on the pitch?

08:52Yeah, but maybe pundits media always assume that we are so affected by what's been said in the media,

09:01but if you are playing so many years at this level like Virgil and Mo do,

09:05I don't think you are affected anymore by what people say.

09:10And these two players are also not – if they wouldn't get a contract anywhere around the world anymore,

09:18it's not like they don't have enough money to do some groceries next season.

09:23So probably they're not as worried as you might think they were about their situation.

09:30You might, might, might give the club some compliments that they played so well,

09:36maybe, maybe because they had to pay for a contract,

09:39which is I think not true because they played six years so well when they had a contract.

09:44But I think these players are old enough that they are not affected by what's been said in the media.

09:52And Virgil's spoken recently about it being a big summer for the club,

09:56and you don't often hear that from players but maybe telling of obviously his stature within the squad.

10:01But how important was that to the two of them, Virgil and Mo,

10:04that obviously there are those assurances of the club building for the future, of course?

10:08Yeah, I think at Liverpool there's always a big summer at a club like this,

10:13and it's already a big summer now because maybe the players don't follow everything that's been said in the media,

10:20me neither, but what I do know sitting here every time that it was a big thing,

10:24can we hold on to them, can we hold on to them?

10:26And by holding on already on two, it's already a big summer.

10:31So let's see what the rest of the summer will bring.

10:36But it would be strange for me to say now that I'm not happy with the team we are having,

10:41because I've said this for a year, so we are happy with the team we're having.

10:45So maybe, maybe if we can even keep that team, that would already be a big summer.

10:49Karl?

10:51On that though, people always say if you stand still you go backwards in terms of chances,

10:57so how much are you planning for the improvements that have to be made,

11:01and where do you think improvements have to be made in this team,

11:04which have done so well already this season?

11:06Yeah, we've showed the opposite last season because we didn't change anything,

11:10so I don't think we went downwards.

11:15But in general I agree with you, but there is also a lot of loss of study being done.

11:23The longer a team plays together, the more success it has.

11:27So I think the core of the team you want to keep as long as you can together,

11:32as long as they are performing in the best possible way.

11:35But it is also in general good to have some new energy in and around the place

11:40with one or two new players, that I agree on.

11:44But it isn't really a necessity if you look at the quality we have

11:50and the quality of the season we've had.

11:52Because, again, we saw during the week how good of a team Newcastle is,

11:59so they're number three now.

12:01So that they played so well against us in the League Cup final

12:06is probably not a surprise anymore.

12:09And Paris Saint-Germain has been good,

12:11but Villa showed the number seven at the moment in England

12:16that they can win from Paris Saint-Germain.

12:19What a league we are in.

12:22We've spoken over the course of the season about frustration

12:27and maybe people focusing on results rather than performances,

12:31but in recent weeks it feels like it's flipped a little bit

12:34with lots of pundits talking about Liverpool's performances not being great,

12:38maybe calling it a bit of a wobble,

12:40but the reality is over the last six games

12:42you've actually gained five points on Arsenal

12:44at this crucial point of the season.

12:45Do you think that there's not been enough focus on Liverpool's resilience

12:49at this stage of the season?

12:51That's difficult to judge because I don't follow everything that's being said.

12:55What I see is that indeed I think we've won five out of the last six games.

13:01And what I've seen is during the whole season,

13:05I've said this I think multiple times,

13:07the first 32 games we've played in the Premier League were,

13:10apart from three or four, they were all tough,

13:14but when you look at the results,

13:16I think we've won many games with one or two goals difference

13:20and only two or three with more than two goals difference.

13:24That tells you that it is a very good league we are in,

13:28and how hard it is to win a game of football,

13:30and I'm not bothered by opinions of pundits,

13:34that's where they are for.

13:36They need to have an opinion,

13:38and yes, we didn't play well the second half against West Ham,

13:41so if they tell we didn't play well the second half against West Ham,

13:44I have to totally agree with them,

13:46but let's look back at Wolves away.

13:48We didn't play well for 90 minutes,

13:50and that was the start of the season.

13:52So it's not the first time that we don't play well Wolves at home,

13:57second half performance, not one shot on target.

14:00So I think you can look at it both ways.

14:03You can see there's a big compliment that you then are

14:05where you are in the league, where we are,

14:07or you say it's not the team like City that was at half-time last season,

14:11either 2-0 up, either 3-0 up or 4-0 up.

14:15Yeah, that would be the next step for us,

14:19if that's still possible,

14:22because Pep says that isn't possible in the current Premier League anymore.

14:26But everyone is going to try to next season,

14:28he, Mikel and me as well.

14:31Yeah, it's nice to know.

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