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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