Post-match press conference with Liverpool manager Arne Slot after Liverpool 1-1 Sunderland at Anfield in the Premier League.
Chemsdine Talbi punished a rare mistake from Virgil van Dijk to give Sunderland the lead, before Florian Wirtz’s late deflected effort went in off Nordi Mukiele to bring Liverpool level. Liverpool dominated territory and piled on pressure from set pieces but again struggled to turn control into clear chances in front of goal.
Slot admits a draw was the minimum Liverpool deserved on the night, insists Sunderland are extremely hard to break down whether pressing high or defending deep, and reflects on another deflected goal conceded after limited chances against. He talks about the need for a “moment of magic” in games like this, explains why he again started Mohamed Salah on the bench before bringing him on at half time, and accepts that teams now arrive at Anfield believing they can get a result against Liverpool.
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00:00We've seen Federico Chies has been a very good substitute for you in tap if you've done
00:24for the season.
00:31Yeah, I think in the final minutes of the game we were close in my opinion to making the 2-1
00:38because we had a few set pieces. We were constantly around their box, they couldn't actually come
00:44out of that situation anymore. But then from one of the set pieces when we brought in the
00:49second phase we brought the ball in and the goalkeeper catched the ball. I looked up and
00:53I saw a player of them completely free at the halfway line. The good thing was from Federico
00:59that he could have thought it's nothing for me to do anymore, I'm so far away from the
01:03situation but he kept sprinting and Ali moved him to the outside and as a result of that
01:11Federico cleared the ball off the line which was I think the minimum we deserved tonight
01:17and the minimum his effort deserved as well. And I mean with that the draw was the minimum
01:23we deserved tonight.
01:25In terms of the performance overall were you pleased with it or were you frustrated with
01:32the balance of it?
01:33A bit of both. So I knew before the game when you play Sunderland I think from the 14th
01:43game they played now they've only conceded four times more than one goal and in these four
01:47games they've only conceded two. So it's a hard team to score against, it's a hard team to create
01:52your chances against because they either go really aggressive in a high press or they have eleven
01:59players, ten outfield players and a goalkeeper who defend their box with their lives and that's
02:05why it's so difficult to create. So in that aspect I was hoping for more although I knew how difficult
02:12it is to create against them. I think again we've hardly conceded. The first big chance of them was I don't
02:19count the shot that hit the bar because that was not a chance but the first serious chance was from a set
02:26piece that hit the post and then their goal is in my opinion not even a chance. If that is a chance
02:33we've probably had 20 chances tonight but unfortunately the deflection led to going 1-0 down and then
02:40recently in our recent games we found it really hard to get the equalizer although we had our chances
02:50every time but today we had a little bit of luck with scoring the 1-1 because that was also deflection.
02:57For me different because that's a shot from eight, nine, ten yards so that's at least a serious chance
03:02where a shot from 20 yards isn't. A serious chance, an opportunity but not a serious chance. So a bit of both.
03:11Luis?
03:12So those seem to grow in confidence as the second half went on. Do you think that this third match
03:19of our win here at Anfield, do you think that Anfield is losing in sort of fear factor?
03:24No, not Anfield for sure but it's clear that teams that play us now think they can get a result. Not only think
03:33because that's been shown this season and even in the games we've won I think they're also refueled the
03:40confidence for other teams like there's something possible but because the wins we had in the beginning
03:45of the season weren't easy ones as well. I don't completely agree with you that they grew into the game
03:52because I think throughout the whole second half there was only one team that had the ball
03:56and only one team that was playing on one half. But yeah, if they got a free kick off the referee
04:02or they had a goal kick they could bring it to our half with a long ball and we had to defend
04:08three or four times a set-piece and three throw-in and a corner kick. And of course that is a danger
04:18with them because they've shown this season that they are a threat in set-pieces. The good thing for us
04:23is we didn't concede from a set-piece. Maybe as a result that we got at least a point.
04:29As well as you prepared for them and seeing their success, did they do anything that surprised you?
04:35No, they didn't do anything that surprised me. No, no, no. Like I said, we know that they can press really high
04:45and defend with 11 players around their box and that is what many teams do in the Premier League.
04:52And that's the minimum you need to do, defend with 11 players, because this league has become so strong
04:59that it's very hard not to defend with 11 players.
05:04I think in the first instance, when they have the ball free on 30-35 yards away from your goal, it's smarter to take away the space because if you step out as a centre-back or in a different position, the other team tries to explore it.
05:21So first take away the space, but at a certain moment you move forward to the ball, which I think is what Virgil tried.
05:40And lucky enough of a deflection, and I've seen so many deflected shots on the other end, where one of them led to a goal as well.
05:55But yeah, we were again unlucky that from the few chances we've conceded again, we've conceded a goal.
06:02In my opinion, Cody struggled to dominate the 1v1s and if you want to have any chance against, like I said, they were pressing high, but also in multiple situations they were in a low block, then the way to score is quite simple.
06:31You need a moment of magic from a player or you need a set-piece to score.
06:37And I felt in the first half that Cody struggled to find that moment because it was hard for him to dominate the 1v1s that Orkhet crosses in.
06:46So I thought that's in the first half we played with Soboslai off the right, to be defensively strong enough not to concede as much as we did in the last few weeks.
06:58So I changed it to Mo on the right side and then played with a midfielder on the left.
07:04Like I said, we had deconceded, but it was throughout the whole game difficult to create that moment of magic and from the set-pieces we had unfortunately we were once close.
07:16I think it was Maka in the first half, we had the post from a set-piece if I'm correct.
07:20But yeah, we had enough, especially in the end of the second half, but didn't score.
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