Arne Slot previews Liverpool's cup trip to Brighton
29/120/2024
Axa training centre, Liverpool, UK
29/120/2024
Axa training centre, Liverpool, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00It's a bit cold today, even inside.
00:11Arnaut, before we talk about Liverpool,
00:13can I just get your thoughts on Erik ten Maag obviously leaving his position
00:16as Manchester United manager and Ruben de Stroot taking Inter in charge?
00:20Yeah, you can, of course. He's a Dutch manager,
00:25so that makes it even harder for me, for us, as Dutch people.
00:30Always your first thoughts are with the person.
00:34We are all in this job, so we know it can happen,
00:37but if it happens, especially because I know him a little bit
00:41and I know how much work he puts into it,
00:44then to get this news for him is of course a pity.
00:52But we also know, especially us coming from Holland,
00:55how well he did at Ajax and that he won two trophies over here,
00:58so we will see him, I think in the near future, somewhere at a big club again.
01:03But at this moment it's for him and his family.
01:06It's of course, tragedies may be a bit too much to say, but it's a big disappointment.
01:12And for your squad at the moment, Jota, Chiesa, Conor Brightley,
01:15are they likely to figure how far away are they from a return?
01:19The ones you just mentioned, Conor is training with us again,
01:23so he could maybe be in the squad tomorrow.
01:26Jota not, Alisson not, Javi Elliott not,
01:30and Federico, I'm not expecting him to be in the squad tomorrow as well.
01:34How long do you think Federico...
01:36That's always difficult to say, because he goes a bit up and down,
01:40so sometimes he's there with us, trains a few days,
01:42and then he goes out for an injury again.
01:46So I don't want to put days or weeks on it,
01:52because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape,
01:57and don't put any pressure on him by coming up with dates.
02:02Just looking at this competition, the game you've already played,
02:05obviously the starting line-up from the win over Bournemouth,
02:08only Kelleher and Nunes then started the Cup win over West Ham,
02:11and then from the West Ham game on, Jota started the league win over Wolves,
02:15so how likely are you to do something similar with regards to team selection this week,
02:20bearing in mind it's also a double-header against Bayern?
02:22Yeah, I don't think it's possible to do the same as we did against West Ham,
02:26for the simple reason that we got some injuries,
02:29so we don't have maybe enough players to change them all, if I wanted that.
02:35We've played on Sunday against Arsenal,
02:38yesterday there was mostly recovery for everyone,
02:41so today when we come in, and we have to come in as we speak,
02:46we will find out how they all are, and then we have to make a decision who's going to start.
02:50But I think if you look at our schedule and the amount of times
02:54that we have less days to recover compared to our opponent,
02:58that's not on Saturday, because we play Brighton tomorrow,
03:03but Brighton played Saturday, and with Liverpool it's the same,
03:07they play Friday, we play Saturday,
03:09so it might be a moment for us to also see some other players,
03:12but like I said, first we have to know how fit everybody is.
03:20Can I just ask as well, this starts, I think it's five games in around 11 days,
03:26how do you prepare for that, and does that mean you have to select games that have more prominence?
03:32No, I think always the next game is the most important,
03:36so you try to pick a team that is best capable of winning that game,
03:42and sometimes that means because they've played so many games,
03:45you change one or two or a few more players.
03:49How to prepare them for that is not what you do today or tomorrow,
03:52that's mostly what you've done already in pre-season,
03:55and all the weeks leading up to this schedule,
03:58those are the weeks you try to prepare them for,
04:01and you do this by training sessions, of course.
04:06Jürgen, I know Marco came off the bench and started the previous round in this competition,
04:11is this a chance for him to maybe start, and also when you're making these changes,
04:15how do you keep those players that are maybe struggling for minutes happy in the squad?
04:20The last thing is not always easy, because they all want to play,
04:24and it would be strange for me if they are all happy if they don't play,
04:28but they are professionals, they know that these things can happen,
04:32and they also see that the players that play in their position do really well,
04:36mostly with Wata, but it's also with Joe Gomez and Gerard Kwanzaa,
04:40that are in competition with Ryan, with Ibu and with Virgil.
04:44So they understand and they see how well these players play,
04:47and that they also stay fit until the last minute of the game.
04:52But I think Wata is one of the players that might be in the line-up,
04:56because the season is going to be so long and we will need him during the season,
05:02and therefore he needs once in a while playing time as well.
05:06Fortunately he has this playing time with the national team,
05:09but it helps if he once in a while gets a game with us again,
05:12and I really liked him against West Ham.
05:15And what I admire about him, or what I respect about him,
05:18is his personality, because two times he had to come in five minutes before the end,
05:23and in my managerial career I sometimes have seen that players,
05:26if they come in five minutes before the end,
05:28they come in with a face like this and play like that,
05:32but every time when we need him, even if it's for five minutes,
05:35he shows up for the team, for his team-mates and for himself.
05:40So I think also for that reason he deserves to play tomorrow.
05:48Hi, Arne. You mentioned after the Aston match your admiration for Darwin Nunes
05:53and his ability to come in and play three games
05:55after not having played a lot and to play with such energy and aggression.
05:59You also kind of mentioned he was the only recognised striker available,
06:03so with that in mind I was wondering about some of the other options.
06:07We saw Kylian Mbappe play 15 minutes at the end of the game against Leipzig,
06:11but he seems to have been more rejuvenated in his old left-wing role.
06:15We've also seen Luis Pizarro and Mo Salah play essentially during their Liverpool career.
06:19I noticed Jake Dance was walking into the building earlier today,
06:22I wonder whether or not he's coming to play if he's training for the first team this year?
06:27You could become the manager over here!
06:29LAUGHTER
06:31Do we have any other option to play as a nine as well?
06:34Because you're giving me a lot already.
06:36I mean, I'm not offering my own side to play.
06:38OK, I don't know if that's smart.
06:42No, I think about Darwin, I gave him credit for the fact that he worked so hard in previous weeks
06:52where he didn't play a lot, to be able to play three times in a row in, I think, three games in eight days,
06:58so that says a lot about him.
07:00But it also says a lot about the quality of our performance staff and medical staff,
07:04that we were able to give him the right sessions, to prepare him in the right way.
07:10But you always need the player to buy in, because you can give him the right sessions,
07:13but if he doesn't give everything then it's very difficult for him to do what he did.
07:18Also, with him, it was a good thing that his ban for the Uruguay team was cancelled,
07:27so he could play their two games, that helped probably as well for him to play the way he did,
07:32and I'm not talking about the quality he played with, but the intensity he played with.
07:36And the quality was also good.
07:38So there was a positive thing.
07:40Yeah, it is a pity that Djoko Djota is not available and Federico Chiesa is also not available,
07:46because they were, in my opinion, the most logical No. 9s, maybe not in yours!
07:50But still, we have some other options with the ones you just said.
07:59Do you expect Djoko to be back before the November international break?
08:03No.
08:05Yeah.
08:07Yeah.
08:09And Eddie Desai?
08:11Eddie Desai, yeah.
08:13Just from the PA, there were some reports from Italy last week
08:18saying that you might try and get him on loan in January, is that true?
08:24That hasn't gone through my mind at all.
08:27I think the first and foremost is that he gets fit again,
08:31and then we can see where he is, and I think there were also reports in Italy.
08:37What I meant about him was that he missed pre-season,
08:40and in pre-season he was on low-intensity sessions,
08:44because he had to train with three or four players apart from the group.
08:48So that is what I said, and then going from there to a high-intensity league,
08:56to a high-intensity playing style, is difficult in general for every player,
09:02but especially if you had a pre-season like this.
09:05We knew this before, so we knew we had to be really careful
09:08and adjust where we could to his individual needs.
09:13But it hasn't been perfect yet, so we are trying to find the right way of building him up,
09:18without overloading him, and that has been difficult till now,
09:22but I have full confidence that that will happen.
09:25Let him first be fit.
09:36It's something that also goes through my head, and I haven't made that decision yet,
09:40so we will see tomorrow.
09:43It's also a decision you take, you include your goalkeeper coach with that,
09:47but in the end I have to make that decision,
09:50and I also want to hear how fit Kweef is at the moment, he played many games.
09:55So let's wait and see what decision I make tomorrow.
10:06Do you trust the club's progress?
10:09I assume the club follows this progress very detailedly,
10:13because I know how professional this club is.
10:16If you ask me, I'm in a programme from game, press conference,
10:21sometimes have some time to train with the boys as well!
10:25So I wasn't able to see his game during the weekend,
10:29but it's good to hear he made some good saves.
10:32It's nice to hear that, because we knew we brought a very good goalkeeper with him.
10:41Can I ask what the main threats from Brighton will be tomorrow?
10:46A very good idea about football for many years already,
10:51so I like their playing style a lot with their former manager already,
10:55and with this one as well.
10:59What makes the club Brighton, in my opinion, special
11:03is that maybe not the most money in the league when they buy the players,
11:07but they always find the right ones.
11:10So there's a lot of quality, although also for them the transfer fees go up a bit,
11:16but they are not spending 100 million on the players,
11:19so they always find the right ones.
11:22So many quality players to pick, and a very good playing style.
11:28Jürgen, obviously the club has a chance to use your players sometimes,
11:33you obviously used a lot of them in the summer to get game time,
11:38but when you do get injuries and you look at the squad,
11:41is that a difficult balance to try and know how many to let go and how many to keep around the building?
11:46Yeah, that is sometimes difficult, because in certain situations you would prefer to keep them here,
11:52because then they can train every day with you
11:55and you can implement your playing style in the best possible way.
11:59But if that also means that they hardly play,
12:03that will normally also lead not to the progression you are hoping for.
12:07So that is the balance we always try to find with our players,
12:11also with our very talented ones, and sometimes that means you bring them on alone.
12:15Stefan Beicet was a very good example of that.
12:18Then you hope to see that he plays a lot, and he already played a few games.
12:24And then it's very pleasing in this particular situation
12:27that he went to a very good manager as well, with Pepijn Luynders,
12:31that knows this club also.
12:34And for Ben Doak it's similar, he also went to a very good manager and a very good playing style.
12:40So it's a balance we need to find.
12:42Do we want to play them on a regular basis or once in a while and keep with us?
12:47And we have to be aware of our own interests so we can't let everybody go
12:52that doesn't play all the time.
12:54And Tyler Morton is a good example of that,
12:57which is a quality, quality player.
13:00Good enough to play everywhere around the league,
13:03but he's in competition with so many good midfielders over here.
13:07Like you see now, we've got six forwards, two of them are injured, so only four left.
13:12And with the schedule we have, that's sometimes a bit of a worry for me.
13:16So maybe we should bring Ben Doak back.
13:20You're welcome.