Skip to playerSkip to main content
  • 5 months ago
Slot on Liverpool late 3-2 win at ten-man Newcastle

25/08/2025

St James' Park, Newcastle, UK

Category

🥇
Sports
Transcript
00:00How do you sum that up?
00:17Have you won it when you lost the two-goal lead again
00:20and then Rio and Gamera have these great moments at the end?
00:24I would sum it up like that.
00:27How do you sum an evening like this up?
00:30It felt familiar to me.
00:33I think I've experienced a game like this once before.
00:36Since I'm here in England, there was Everton away last season,
00:39where so many things happened, where it was complete chaos,
00:43where the fans were so loud and so there for the home team
00:49and our fans tried to help us as much as they could.
00:52But it was an unbelievable atmosphere and for us to stay strong in that atmosphere
00:59for such a long time is worth more to me
01:03than when we play every single timeout from the back
01:06and we have a 4-0 or a 5-0 win.
01:08This means more to me than when we play good football,
01:13because tonight had for me nothing to do with tactics or good football.
01:17It was just a great game to watch,
01:20but not because of tactics or good football,
01:22but because it was every single second of the game
01:26everybody was at the front of their seats.
01:30Just on rehab, obviously a huge moment.
01:36You obviously have an enormous feeling to throw him on when you need a goal.
01:41How do you sort of slow up his development over the past few months?
01:45Yeah, we needed a goal, but the best part for me of our game
01:49was after we've conceded the 2-2.
01:52It was also their best part of the game, but what I mean with that is
01:55I think they've got three or four corner kicks after they scored the 2-2.
01:5915 throw-ins, 112 free kicks.
02:02Not as many as I'm saying, but it felt as if it was so much.
02:06The two of them were waiting because I didn't feel I could bring them in
02:09if we had to defend so many corner kicks and set pieces.
02:12They were so close to scoring the 3-2, but we stood strong.
02:16Virgil, Ali, Ibu, they helped us a lot in these moments.
02:19At last, after four or five minutes, we got the ball in a neutral position.
02:24I think we got a free kick.
02:25I could bring the both of them in.
02:27It's of course special for him to score a goal in a moment like this.
02:33We know how it feels last season.
02:34We've conceded a free-all in an extra time, I think 89 minutes.
02:39And now we were the lucky ones because that's what we were.
02:43We were lucky to get a win over the line over here.
02:462-0 up with an extra amount. Were you disappointed you didn't control the second half?
02:52No, not at all. Not at all.
02:56Because that's what their playing style brought.
02:59You cannot control the game of football if every single ball is thrown into your 18-yard box.
03:05Every throw-in is a long throw and every free kick they get is a long ball.
03:09And they can do both. That's why this is such a good team.
03:12They can play out from the back if they want to.
03:14They can be intense in their pressing.
03:15They have so many quality players.
03:17But they also have the quality to play a game like this with so many big players.
03:22So, yeah, you cannot control the game of football.
03:27Of course, it helps a little bit to have an extra man in a set-piece.
03:31But if the goalkeeper takes a ball, there's no use of having an extra player anymore.
03:36So, with set-pieces, it helps a little bit to have one extra player.
03:41But not as much as you would like.
03:43So, it was impossible for us to control the game.
03:46When we had the ball, we kept it quite long.
03:48And I was hoping for us to do more, to create more.
03:52Because our attackers were not patient enough.
03:56Every time we were quite calm in the build-up.
03:59But when we ended up with our attackers,
04:01they should keep the ball longer and every time force the pass.
04:04Yeah, the ball went behind.
04:06And then we had to defend a long goal kick again.
04:10So, no, we couldn't control the game better.
04:13But that was mainly to do with their playing style and how hard they made it for us.
04:19You must have been delighted with Dominic.
04:21Obviously, having to play in a role he's not used to.
04:23Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:25Yeah, talking about mentality.
04:27I think it's not easy to play as a full-back if you've mainly only been a midfielder in your whole career.
04:35He played there once in pre-season.
04:36I think it was against Stoke when we played behind closed doors.
04:40But then in that game we only had the ball.
04:43And now he had to defend a lot.
04:45And for him to put in a performance like that,
04:49then you can say a lot about his mentality as you can about all the players.
04:55Because this was mentally such a difficult evening, such a difficult place to go to,
04:59such a difficult opponent to play against.
05:02And for us to be able to get a result, let alone getting a win,
05:07is a big compliment for the boys.
05:10Paul?
05:11Do you think Karlsruhe will be able to ask him?
05:15We're hoping, yeah.
05:17He had to leave the training pitch two days ago.
05:21And that would not even be the biggest problem if he would have had a proper pre-season.
05:27But he missed out for so many weeks.
05:30And there's a reason why you go inside, because you probably feel something.
05:34And that is a difficult balance to find with players that are out for so long in pre-season.
05:40Because there you bring the base throughout the whole season
05:44and you can see these intensity levels that we faced last week.
05:48And this topped it up ten times, I think.
05:52Then you need to be so, so, so fit.
05:55And then it's also a risk if you bring a player that had a pre-season like this,
05:58had to go out two days ago in a training session in this environment.
06:03With such a long season to go, that was too much of a risk for me.
06:07But I'm hoping, hoping things improve in the upcoming one or two days
06:11so that he's available for Sunday.
06:14Is it results like that on nights like this that win titles?
06:20That's the last thing I think about at this moment, if I'm honest.
06:25Winning away at Newcastle, then you definitely need to have quality.
06:31Especially in an atmosphere like this.
06:34And not football quality, because that's not what we showed today,
06:37apart from the last goal we scored.
06:39That looked a little bit like what I see on a daily basis on a training round.
06:43But to have the mentality to fight here in such a hostile stadium,
06:49that definitely is something you also need if you want to compete in the end.
06:56Winning is something else, but at least competing you definitely need to have this mentality.
07:01And that's what we showed.
07:03Thank you guys.
Comments

Recommended