Slot on Liverpool latest ahead of Man City FA Cup trip

sportslounge.tv

Slot on Liverpool latest ahead of Man City FA Cup trip  03/04/2026  AXA Traning centre, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:07Morning, I think you know what's coming first. That Mo Salah announcement came during the

00:13international break, first chance to have a chat with you about it. How do you feel now,

00:18obviously you knew it was coming, and can it act as a real positive for the club between

00:23now and the end of the season? And is he fit, first of all? Yes, he is. He trained with

00:30us yesterday,

00:30will train with us today, and is available for the game tomorrow. I think what has happened

00:38after he announced it is what he completely deserves. His teammates, anyone everywhere

00:43around the world that was asked about his legacy said the words that needed to be said. It's been

00:49unbelievable what he did for this club for so many years, every three days, scoring the goals he did,

00:56having the assist, having the impact he had on this club, winning the trophies. I saw a beautiful

01:02photo of him in front of all the trophies he's won individually and as a team. And I can only

01:08hope

01:09that he can add two extra trophies to it towards the end of the season.

01:15Well, he wants to finish on a high, won't he? So, you know, can it act as a real positive

01:20for you?

01:21Now that everybody knows it's happening, do you feel that it will give the club a solid boost?

01:28For the club, maybe. For Mo, I think it doesn't matter if he's going to leave the club or if

01:32he's going to stay.

01:33That's what he's shown in all these eight or nine years that he was always available in his best

01:39possible shape. And that doesn't change. Not in a positive way now. Now he's leaving in the end

01:45because Mo has always given everything he's got for this club in all the years that he's been here.

01:52So I would hope that he could give maybe even more, but that's not realistic because he always gave

01:57everything he had. So and he will try doing that till the end of the season. And if we if

02:05we have Mo

02:06in the form he's had for so many years, that will be a big help for us towards the end

02:11of the season.

02:11I know you had a disappointing result last time out at Brighton, but now you've got these two big cup

02:16fixtures,

02:17back to back big games, an exciting time really for everyone at the club. Just how you want it really

02:23at this stage of the campaign?

02:26Yeah, but that's throughout the whole season, how much you want it. But it's also about who's available

02:31and who's not. And I think the Brighton game summed our season up completely. So after a great game midweek

02:38against Galatasaray, we immediately had to set back the day after with Ali and Mo being out. And then three

02:44minutes into the game, Hugo Ekitike went out. And I think we could also see that in the second half,

02:53one or two players struggled with the fact that we played during midweek. And those were those were the players

02:58that were not used to it yet because of injuries throughout the whole season. So but now

03:05Mo is back. Ali unfortunately isn't.

03:09But I think much more of our players are used to the program now than they were in the beginning

03:13of the season.

03:14So now it's up to us to show that we are ready for this tough fixture list, tough in a

03:20sense of the

03:21opponents we face. But that's completely normal. If you are still in the FA Cup and if you're still in

03:26the

03:27Champions League, that you face tough opponents and tough in a sense that it's a lot of games with

03:32hardly any rest in between. But we are now eight or nine months further than we were in the start

03:38of

03:38the season. And I think more and more players are ready for this schedule than they were for large

03:45parts of the first half of the season. One of those being Alexander Isak, who we've seen back on the

03:50training pitch. It would seem to be too early for tomorrow, but has he got a chance of figuring next

03:56week?

03:57No, it will definitely be too fast to expect him in the starting lineup. He's trained with us yesterday

04:03for the first time and today for the second time after exactly 101 days. I know this because it was

04:12told to me. So yeah, it will take a bit of time to give him a lot of minutes, but

04:21we will make sure we

04:23do the right thing in terms of building him up in minutes. But it's a very good thing to have

04:28him

04:28on a training ground. Again, it would be even a better thing to have him available for games,

04:32that's for sure.

04:33Thanks very much.

04:36Arna, lots of big games on the horizon, starting with this FA Cup tie at Manchester City.

04:42What is it about the big games, do you think, that seems to bring out the best in the Liverpool

04:47players? If you just look at this season, I know lots of things haven't gone your way.

04:52The game against Real Madrid, Arsenal home and away, even the Manchester City game that you lost

04:58at Anfield, you played really well and could easily have won it. So what is it about these big

05:02occasions that does seem to enable the players to play with maybe a bit more freedom?

05:09Now, unfortunately, the one game we are playing tomorrow was probably the worst game we had in the

05:15sense of playing the big games. We lost their 3-0. Of course, there were referee decisions involved

05:22in that loss that made it harder for us. But they were much better in the first half than us.

05:29I think, and I've said this many times, the reason why we have shown many times that we're a good

05:35team

05:35in big games, but also in other games, is that we have very good players and we can play very

05:40good

05:41football. It's been very hard for us and a struggle for us to play the amount of games. So every

05:47time

05:47after a good game, even the City game, we played three days after we played Real Madrid. And that has

05:54been our biggest problem this season. Struggling after playing after a good result or bad result.

06:01We played so many games. That has been the biggest issue for this team. And not the games on itself,

06:09because we've shown that we are quality players and we are a very good team. But the amount of games

06:15have been our biggest issue. And that's why I just said it's interesting for us to see now where we

06:22are

06:22after seven, eight or nine months. We've played much better against them at home. As you said, at Anfield,

06:28I don't think we deserve to lose, especially not after our second-half performance. Unfortunately,

06:35there was a big referee decision in that game as well, the red card and Marcelo, and that didn't

06:40went in our favour. But now we have to show if there's progress, we can also show that in an

06:48away game,

06:48because it's usually tougher to play away from home than at Anfield.

06:52The game that you referred to at Manchester City that you lost 3-0,

06:57Jeremy Docku was almost unplayable. What can you do to try and make sure he doesn't get that type of

07:07opportunity again to cause as much carnage? He'll probably never play as well as that game,

07:13but Jeremy Docku is a very capable footballer. Is it about trying to cut the supply to him?

07:22I did my homework quite well for this game, as I try to do for every game. But I have

07:27to disagree

07:28with you about Docku's performance last time, because the year before he was even better.

07:34I think then he had 11 times he had a dribble past one of our defenders. And in the last

07:41game,

07:41he had seven or eight. So I wouldn't be too sure that he's not able to do that another time.

07:47But

07:50we hopefully also learn from that. And it's not always about Docku on his own. It's also about the

07:58environment. How many players can we bring in that zone? If it's 1v1, then he's probably one of

08:07the best out there. And that's a big quality to have for a team. I think the amount of times

08:12I've

08:12sat here to say one-on-one quality can make a difference against teams that defend in a low block.

08:18So it's a vital quality. But we have to make sure that he's not as isolated. Our defenders that have

08:28to

08:28defend Docku is not as isolated as he was in the last time we played them. And sometimes he was

08:38not

08:38only on a 1v1, sometimes he had even the fullback to support him. So my defender, Conor Bradley back

08:45then, had two players to defend. And that makes it even more difficult to play against Docku,

08:52if O'Reilly is also there to help you. Thank you.

08:58Can you just check on Ali? I know you said he's not available tomorrow. Do you expect it to be

09:02a longer-term thing? Yeah. Yeah, he will not be part of the Paris Saint-Germain games as well. So

09:12he will be out for a bit longer. Towards the end of the season, we expect him to be fit

09:18again.

09:18And Jeremy, I know he obviously came off for the Netherlands, but he's OK.

09:22Yeah, he seems to be OK. He trained with us yesterday fully and will train with us tomorrow again.

09:31But he was one of the players I referred to about the Brighton game. I think in the second half

09:36you

09:36could see that he still has a step to make in terms of every three days. And then coming off

09:46for the

09:47national team, yeah, another interesting and difficult choice to make, how many minutes in

09:55which game, because games come so fast. And as we know, we don't have eight right fullbacks available.

10:02So, yeah, interesting challenge. But I face this challenge throughout the whole season almost.

10:08So I will find an answer. Would two sessions be enough to include Alex on the bench tomorrow?

10:17You can even be on the bench if you haven't trained. But the question is,

10:22is he ready to play some minutes? That's another question. It's a difficult one because we don't play

10:28a normal game. What I mean is that it could go to extra time. So that makes it even more

10:35complicated.

10:35If you bring him in, if we think he can only play 10 minutes, if we already think this,

10:40and you bring him in 10 minutes before the end and then you go to extra time,

10:43that, of course, you can take him off again. If we have enough players available to bring another

10:49player in. But so, yeah, maybe a few minutes. But let's wait and see how it is with him today,

10:59how he feels about it himself. And it's clear that after two training sessions, after 100 days,

11:05it would not make any sense to start him tomorrow.

11:09Yeah. At the start of the season, he obviously needed a long time, didn't need to get up to speed,

11:13having got a proper pre-season. Now, after three and a half months out,

11:16what do you think is actually realistic between now and the end of the season?

11:21No, it wasn't only that he missed pre-season. He missed also the end of Newcastle's season.

11:26And he didn't go with the national team. So he missed much more than only pre-season.

11:32Yeah, it was realistic. I think Rehab did a great job. If I look at him now,

11:37compared to where he was before he got injured, I see a player that's much stronger,

11:42physically in a much better place. But going from 100 days off towards the intensity of the Premier

11:49League in the end phase of the season and the end phase of the Champions League, where

11:52usually the opposition you face is even harder. What's realistic to expect? That's difficult,

11:58but I'm really, really, really happy that I have at least a number nine again available behind

12:07Hugo or together with Hugo. So that's already a positive thing. And what to expect? I think

12:14I've said many times that next season, when he's had a proper pre-season, we can expect more from

12:20him maybe than now. But even the way he is now is already a big step forward for us compared

12:28to what

12:29we had when he was injured. Hi, Armin. Looking back at the two games against

12:33Manchester City last season that you won, in both games you were able to get a lead quite early on.

12:39I think inside the first 15 minutes you were able to score a goal. Whereas looking at the two games

12:44so

12:44far this season, you mentioned the City away game played not very well in that first half,

12:49even regarding the chance at the end. And in the home game, it wasn't a great start.

12:54City were dominating most of the ball. Even in a game like this, where against a team like City,

13:00you're expecting to do a lot of defending, how important is it to retain that attacking element,

13:04even in those early stages of the game?

13:07No, very important. I think I've felt this season multiple times how important it is

13:14to get a lead. Because that's where we struggled with this season. And it's much easier if you're 1-0

13:21up,

13:22to keep the lead than being 1-1 or a goal down and you have to chase the game. So

13:28scoring goals is

13:29vital in football, as we all know, and it helps you in many aspects. That's why I'm so happy that

13:34Alex is back.

13:36Away game we scored from a set-piece. That really helps in every game of football,

13:40especially in the big games. It's so important that you have a positive set-piece balance,

13:44which we didn't have when we faced them at the Etihad this season, because they scored from a set-piece.

13:52By the way, we scored as well, but that was disallowed. So that makes it more difficult. But

14:00as you said, the first half at Anfield City was dominating ball possession. You could also

14:07change the question and say, how impressive was it that you dominated ball possession in the second

14:11half? Because how many teams can dominate ball possession against Man City throughout the last 10

14:17years? So that's what I mean with a big step forward compared to the game we played at the Etihad.

14:22But now we

14:23have to show this as well in their stadium, which is always more difficult than having 60,000

14:29people at Anfield that are helping you out if you are pressing and giving you the energy that you need

14:34if you face City. The good thing is it's an FA Cup tie, so we have more fans than we

14:40usually have in an away

14:41game. And as we know from our fans, they will be loud. And I wouldn't be surprised if they would

14:46even be

14:47louder than the fans of City. Thank you.

Category

Transcript

Comments

Recommended