Slot on Forest test, injury woes, Jota memories and title race (Full Presser)

NicheSportMedia

Liverpool boss Arne Slot on Andy Robertson’s comments about dealing with the tragic death of Diogo Jota in the summer, the injury woes at the club and the Premier League title race as they prepare to face Nottingham Forest AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:01Aren't you?

00:02Yes, really good.

00:03Really good.

00:06Arne, I'm probably going to have to ask you about transfer speculation

00:10and the potential to bring in a centre-half in January.

00:13How likely are you to bring in a centre-half, whether it's Mark Gay or anyone else?

00:17Oh, this was one of the questions I didn't expect.

00:21Talking about signings in the winter break,

00:24I think there are so many games that we played before that,

00:28and in the position we are in.

00:30It's the last thing that's on my mind.

00:33Maybe not on Richard's, but it's the last thing on my mind.

00:36So it's not a topic at all for me at the moment.

00:40We have at this moment of time three centre-backs,

00:44with Joe Gomez included of course,

00:47and maybe Ryan and Wata who can play in that position.

00:52Maybe you are not aware of it yet,

00:55but we have other positions at the moment,

00:58which is a bit more of an issue.

01:02In terms of results then, how perfect do you feel you have to be

01:05if you are to retain the title now?

01:08No, I think I've said many times already that at this moment of time

01:12we're not even thinking or talking about it.

01:15Actually, we didn't do this last season as well,

01:17when we were top of the league, it's just about the next game.

01:20And I've said many times last season, and I say this this season again as well,

01:24the best way to judge a league table is after 38 games,

01:27but the next best thing in my opinion is after 19 games.

01:30Let's see where we are then.

01:34But at this moment of time the only focus we have is winning games of football,

01:39which it was actually the same last season at this moment of time.

01:43I have to ask you about Andy Robertson,

01:45I think his comments I've just gotten forward prior to the World Cup

01:48around Diogo Jota kind of gave an indication of the way to grief

01:52that you guys are all still carrying.

01:55I just wonder then how you manage that day-to-day within the club,

02:01but also as well, are you guys being fairly judged

02:04given the raw emotion that you're still carrying with regard to Diogo?

02:08I think we're always judged, sometimes fair, sometimes unfair,

02:13but I saw the interview as well live,

02:19and I know that it is an issue for us,

02:25which is something completely normal,

02:27but at these moments of time I always think about

02:31how much it feels for his wife and his children,

02:34because that's so, so, so, so much harder for them than it is for us.

02:40But that we miss the player and the person, that is completely clear.

02:44Maybe it tells you even more now we play nothing on Forest.

02:51Last season we were 1-0 down at Forest,

02:54and it only took him one minute to score the equaliser.

02:57So now I'm talking about the player that we miss for sure,

03:02because this time we haven't managed to come back as many times as last season

03:07after being 1-0 down or a goal down.

03:09And he definitely paid his part in that last season,

03:13but that we also miss him as a person, that will be completely clear.

03:16But again, his wife and children will miss him so, so, so much more.

03:22Barons, by the way, as well.

03:28I can tell that you're getting quite emotional now thinking about that as well.

03:33Does everybody come together to be reminded?

03:37I know you don't want to ever forget Diogo,

03:41but it's that constant reminder.

03:44Is that something that is good for everyone to stir them on,

03:49or are there some other parts with that?

03:53I think it's good for us to remind him every time possible,

03:57because of, like I said, the person and the player he was.

04:03But it's impossible to measure what it does to the players,

04:08and then to measure what it does to our results.

04:11So the last thing I would do is to use it as an excuse,

04:14because I simply don't know.

04:16What I do know is that we miss the player.

04:19That's 100% sure.

04:20And we also miss the person,

04:22but I cannot measure what that has an impact on our performances,

04:28let alone on our results.

04:30So that's impossible for me to say,

04:32and we will never use it as an excuse,

04:36because that doesn't feel right.

04:38I can ask you about team news.

04:40Alisson, just wondering where he is.

04:43Andy Robertson himself had obviously trained yesterday,

04:47Alexander and the update, maybe he's on Jeremy as well.

04:50Robert didn't train for private reasons,

04:55but he will be with us today.

04:58Alisson trained last week and this week,

05:02so he will be able to play tomorrow if things work out well today again.

05:07But we do have some issues after the international break unfortunately.

05:13Connor Bradley is not able to play.

05:16Florian Ritz is not able to play.

05:18Those are the two I think.

05:22Yeah.

05:23So that's the far from ideal.

05:28Do you expect Alisson?

05:30Or will you choose Alisson to start?

05:32If he's ready to play then he will start.

05:36I just wonder what differences you're expecting in Nottingham Forest this season

05:40compared to when you faced them last season.

05:42Obviously two changes of manager since then.

05:44Yeah.

05:46True, two changes.

05:48I don't think you can...

05:50No, no, not one manager is the same as another one.

05:54But the playing style of Nuno comes closer to the one of Son Dijs

06:01than it comes closer to the one of Eens-Posteczoglu maybe.

06:05Again, not similar but closer.

06:09So I think it's probably going to be a similar type of game

06:16than it was the last time we faced them now

06:19with Son Dijs taking over from Eens-Posteczoglu.

06:22And obviously the hectic fixture schedule won't let up over the next few weeks.

06:27It's seven games in 21 days for you.

06:30How is that when it comes to betting some of your new signings in particular?

06:35Because some of them have varying levels of form so far.

06:38How does that affect things when you perhaps feel like

06:41maybe you have to change things for fitness reasons every few days?

06:44No, a variation of form is not only with the new signings,

06:48that's also with the players we have.

06:49So that's always in a season that is not always the same,

06:52they're not always in the same form.

06:53But the biggest issue we've faced till now and still facing

06:56is the match fitness of the players and the time they've missed in pre-season.

07:00So Alex now, we were hoping him to play a little bit more for the Swedish national team,

07:05but unfortunately he was one yellow away from being suspended.

07:09So for obvious reasons they didn't play him the second time.

07:11But for us it would have been better if he would have had a bit more minutes in the second game.

07:17So yeah, I just told you about Conor and Florian, Jeremy is already out, Giovanni Leoni.

07:25So we have at this moment of time five defenders, natural defenders,

07:29five players that have always played as a defender available for indeed seven games in 22 days.

07:36And I don't see anyone coming back before that.

07:39So yeah, that is something we almost, I wouldn't say expected,

07:45but we knew that it was hard when you bring players a little bit later into the season,

07:50that it's harder to keep them fit and then there's more emphasise

07:53on the ones that have to play a little bit more in terms of what you ask from them.

07:58So yeah, that was one of the reasons why I played the team

08:03that I played against the Palace for the League Cup.

08:09Can you just ask, what are the issues with Franklin versus?

08:12Both muscle issues.

08:16Do you expect it to be long?

08:18I don't expect Conor to be part of the upcoming 22 days, maybe in the end,

08:26but not in the upcoming 22 days.

08:29Unless something as a miracle happens, which I don't expect.

08:34Florian should be able maybe to play after, depends on how things work,

08:41but that shouldn't have to be that long.

08:43But Jeremy is out just as long.

08:47He's not probably going to be available in the upcoming two or three weeks as well.

08:51So it's going to be interesting who all of you want to see as a right full-back.

08:54Well, that's a nice question.

08:56Yeah, but it's a good issue about that,

08:58because you obviously played your other pick, but he's doing so well for you in the middle.

09:03He's doing so well in every position, yeah, that's true.

09:06He's played really well as a full-back, he's played really well as a midfielder.

09:11Curtis Jones played there last season as well.

09:13Joe Gomez can play there, but Joe Gomez has played, I think if I'm correct,

09:19two times 90 minutes throughout the whole 2025 year.

09:24So if we want to keep him available longer,

09:27it's maybe a bit of a risk to play him seven times in 22 days.

09:32He missed out on a training session yesterday, by the way, as well,

09:35but we are expecting him to train today.

09:38So, yeah, challenging, but the good thing is that we have still enough good players available,

09:45and maybe one of them or two of them have to play in positions they usually don't do.

09:50But yeah, that's what we have to accept.

09:54Hi Arne, you've spoken a lot about the ability and the benefits of playing with a lead,

10:00and a big part of that is making a fast start.

10:03With your comparison to last season, Liverpool haven't made as many fast starts,

10:07I think it's only once in 17 games that Liverpool scored in the first half an hour of a game,

10:11compared to 22 times just in the league last season.

10:15What do you think that's down to, and how do you think you can get that back?

10:19Oh, I wasn't aware of that stat,

10:22although I am aware that we mostly go 1-0 down instead of 1-0 up recently.

10:30I cannot give you an explanation for that at this moment of time.

10:36I maybe need a little bit more time to think about it,

10:39but it does have an impact on a game because, yeah,

10:44I said many times that City deserved the lead in the first half completely,

10:49but it does make a big difference if you go 1-1 into half-time.

10:54Then when a goal is disallowed, how does he exactly say it?

11:01For not unreasonable reasons.

11:04And then two seconds later you are 2-0 down.

11:10So, yeah, goals have a lot of impact on games, that's for sure.

11:16But I cannot give you an explanation why it is actually at this point of time.

11:23James?

11:25Just on Dominic, because he's been so important for you so far this season.

11:29He had that kind of hammer blow,

11:31disappointment being away with Hungary.

11:33Have you had to kind of lift his spirits this week

11:36to try and make sure it doesn't have a knock-on effect?

11:39Well, we did talk about it.

11:41We spoke not only with him, also with Miloš,

11:43because for the both of them it was, of course,

11:45a very big disappointment being so close to play-off games.

11:50And then going out in the extra time of extra time,

11:55which was fair, because I checked it,

11:57I was curious to see if there would have been a substitution in that five minutes,

12:01but I think there were two.

12:03So the referee was in this situation right,

12:05that he added some extra time in extra time.

12:08Yeah, then it's really hard that you concede,

12:12especially because on the other side you see rubber,

12:16what it means to a country and to a player

12:18that haven't qualified for so long.

12:20And the same would have been for Hungary, of course.

12:24Although playing play-off games doesn't mean you will qualify,

12:27but it gives you a chance.

12:29And I asked him, is there now still a chance?

12:33Because I don't have a clue what's happening,

12:35but Aleks, Sander, Izak with Sweden,

12:37they have one point out of five or six games,

12:39but they still have a chance to go to the World Cup,

12:41because they won Group C of the Nations League,

12:45where Hungary was in Group A,

12:47and they did not win that, of course,

12:49so they are not involved.

12:50So it's hard for him that they've actually had quite a good season

12:57or two seasons with the national team,

13:00being in Group A of the Nations League

13:02and picking up quite a lot of points in their group,

13:06but not qualifying, yeah.

13:08It's hard.

13:09But recently at our club,

13:13he's a little bit used to disappointments,

13:17but not such a big one as this one maybe.

13:21But he will be fine,

13:22he will always work as hard as he can,

13:24and I don't expect him to do any different tomorrow.

13:28I couldn't hear you very good.

13:41Did he talk about it?

13:42Can I say he talked about it to the French media?

13:45Okay.

13:46So is there any development on that front?

13:50I haven't heard that,

13:52but my answer will probably be the one you expect.

13:55Do I have to say it or do you say it?

13:59Okay.

14:01You're welcome.

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