Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes Ipswich have been unlucky with their results this season and gave his full backing to boss Kieran McKenna
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Ipswich was your first game in charge,
00:02I think back then there wasn't the expectation that you were going to win the Premier League,
00:07I think certainly outside the club there seems to be the expectation now
00:10that Liverpool are going to win the Premier League this season,
00:13so what difference do you see in your side now compared to that first game against Ipswich?
00:19No, not a lot, but the fact was that I only worked with 13-14 players for one-and-a-half weeks back then,
00:28so there's not been said about sometimes how difficult it is to come in the middle of a season
00:34and try to work with a new team with the schedule we are having.
00:39But to be fair it maybe felt a bit the same for me,
00:43because 12, 13, 14 players came in one-and-a-half weeks before the start of the season,
00:49and from that moment on we only played games,
00:51so it's normal I think that we've improved compared to that game.
00:57Although especially the second-half performance was something
01:02that was quite similar to the performances I see currently.
01:18Yeah, they've done, and they've been a bit unlucky sometimes in the last moments of games.
01:25I think I've said this a few times recently,
01:27that the second half of the season is always more difficult than the first half,
01:30because some teams strengthen themselves during the winter break,
01:33some teams, of all the teams, not all of them,
01:36but many teams work with their manager for half a season,
01:40and that normally leads to a team becoming better,
01:45and that's definitely the situation also for Ipswich,
01:47although they've made it really difficult for us already in the first game of the season.
01:52But I think it's fair to say that they've improved during the first half here,
01:58and that is also a compliment to Kieran McKenna,
02:02that he already made it really difficult for us in the first game,
02:07but I think the few games afterwards were more difficult for them.
02:12But then at a certain point they've become a very good team
02:15that makes it difficult for every team, except maybe their last game,
02:20which was an exception to the rule, and maybe that was because City was City again.