Slot on rotating squad after a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Galatasaray

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Slot on rotating squad after a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Galatasaray  30/09/2025  uefa25 champions league

Transcript

00:00How do you sum up tonight?

00:06Disappointing, because you play football to win a game, and that's what we didn't do.

00:11For me it was a different loss than the one we had against Palace,

00:16because for me there was a lot more to like, especially in the first half,

00:20which was maybe different to the Palace game.

00:23And in the second half it became harder and harder for us to create,

00:28first of all because they were fighting with all they had,

00:33so you always have to give credits to them,

00:35second of all because we hardly played in the second half.

00:39And we hardly played, I mean the ball was hardly in play.

00:43It seemed that at times it was mistakes that were causing you more of a problem

00:47than anything Galatasaray were doing.

00:50You've spoken a number of times about the need to manage minutes,

00:54but at the same time getting a balance with continuity of selection as well.

00:57Do you see that rotation as having an impact in those individual mistakes

01:01that kind of halted the momentum at times?

01:03That's difficult.

01:05There can be so many reasons why an individual makes an error pass or a mistake.

01:13What you see is, and I think I've explained this many times,

01:17that there are a few players from us that missed pre-season,

01:21so you simply cannot play them every single game.

01:23Yeah, you can, but then that could become a risk of players getting injured.

01:27We see this more and more because the demands go up more and more,

01:31and if the demands go up you have to prepare players for these demands.

01:35So, yeah, that means that it's not always that I want to rotate,

01:42but sometimes I just need to because a player is not ready to play three times 90 minutes

01:47in seven or eight days.

01:49Because I like my squad so much, but we don't have 25-26.

01:57So if we end up with two, three or four injuries, 15 or 16 players,

02:03where Rio and Trey are one of these two, or 15 or 16,

02:07need to play almost all the minutes and then things can become complicated.

02:12But this is a decision we've made together.

02:16Me, I completely believe in this,

02:18because if you have 25 it's very hard to manage your squad.

02:22But as a result of that, with Hugo, Alex, Conor and Magalester

02:28not having the pre-season as a player should have,

02:31that also results in the fact that I cannot play them every time.

02:35Richard.

02:37Hi Arne, you said that Alisson is definitely out for Saturday.

02:41What actually is the injury and how severe do you think it is?

02:46No, when he sprinted back he felt something.

02:50So, yeah, I cannot tell you because I'm not a physician.

02:58But normally when a player, when he sprints back, feels something,

03:04and he goes to the floor and doesn't come back onto the pitch.

03:09That's by the way what did they 112 times being injured

03:13and coming back on the pitch without any pain.

03:16But our players don't do this.

03:21So if my player is on the floor, I 9 out of 10 times fear the worst.

03:25And with the worst I mean that he cannot continue,

03:28and that's what happened with Alisson.

03:31So, yeah, normally he will not be able to play Saturday.

03:35That's 99.9 per cent, I've already said 100 per cent, but let's make it 99.9.

03:41But I think it's 100.

03:45Hi Arne, can I just check on Hugo against CK as well?

03:48It looked like he seemed to pull something when he stretched.

03:50Yeah, he felt something when he had to reach for the ball.

03:54I think we all know which moment it was when we were trying to force something.

03:59I think at that moment of time on the other side there was someone on the floor as well.

04:04So the referee blew his whistle and I wasn't even thinking that we had an injury,

04:10but yeah, Hugo felt something.

04:12And after the game, but yeah, that's always the difficult thing with these moments.

04:18Then players feel like, ah, it's not too bad.

04:20But yeah, when you just walk around, it's something different than when you make a sprint

04:24or when you have to shoot on target.

04:26So he said he couldn't continue, so we had to take him off.

04:30Let's see how he is for the weekend.

04:32Can I just also ask you about your right side today?

04:36I know Dominic's obviously played at right-back,

04:38but seeing Jeremy Fringpong quite high up the field,

04:41is that something you want to continue with Dominic playing at right-back?

04:45Is that an issue you need to sort of resolve?

04:47Nah, Jeremy played a lot of times as a wing-back, right-winger at Leverkusen.

04:54He played there in pre-season for us.

04:56He's one of the players that can replace Mo in that position.

05:00I don't see many others that can play in that position which are favourite to them.

05:06I think Jeremy is one of his favourite positions to play there.

05:08He plays there for the national team, for a national team always.

05:11So yeah, he's a player that can play there normally, normally, normally.

05:16They play with the left winger inverted and the full-back really high.

05:19So yeah, if then the left winger goes in further, he plays on the midfield,

05:24so then Dom is on the midfield.

05:26And Jeremy is then some kind of a wing-back.

05:29But they did it the opposite today, which happens more to us that they changed something.

05:34But I think both of them can play really well in that position.

05:38And I've just explained also that Conor missed out quite a lot in pre-season.

05:44So that also means he cannot play every single game.

05:47So you then consider which game is best for which player.

05:51Mo has played a lot of minutes already.

05:56So we decided to do it today like this and I think in the first half

06:01I was quite happy with the way we played, actually.

06:07Did you feel the penalty was slightly harsh on you?

06:10I haven't seen it back.

06:12But there was no contact with defeat and I don't know if you've been to all of my press conferences,

06:22but the last few weeks I'm talking quite a lot about that we are a very fair team.

06:31And I think maybe this was a situation where their player was really smart.

06:36He felt something and made it feel as if it was an unbelievable hit.

06:43And the referee said, yeah, there's contact and then the VAR cannot overturn it if there is contact.

06:49Although he did overturn the contact in the last minute when we got a penalty.

06:53This is something we have to accept.

06:55Thank you, guys.

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