Slot on Liverpool latest ahead of FA Cup trip to Plymouth
07/02/2025
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, Uk
07/02/2025
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, Uk
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00:00Jürgen, just an open-class comment today, did you get any kind of celebration last night?
00:08Not a lot, but after every game we go with a few people and drink a glass of wine,
00:19and then we go home, because it was quite late already when all my media duties were done.
00:29Is there an update on Trent Alexander-Arnold, will he be available this weekend?
00:33No, I don't think so yet. No, that's going to be too early for him.
00:38Derby maybe?
00:40We don't play Derby County.
00:43THE Derby!
00:45Yeah, difficult to say. Like I said before, it's not going to take months,
00:51and not even weeks, but that's only three days after the Plymouth-Argyll game,
00:58so let's wait and see if he's available.
01:00We also have to look at the long-term, of course we don't want to take any risk
01:04with so many games afterwards coming up, but if he's fit then of course we will use him.
01:10How key is rotation again this weekend, and what kind of a balancing act do you have?
01:16Because there's a number of players that I'd imagine you want to give game time
01:19because you want to get their match sharpness up,
01:21but at the same time if you have too many players in there who aren't fully sharp,
01:24it can make these ties that bit trickier for you.
01:27Yeah, I think it's always a tricky tie, no matter what team you play,
01:31because it's an away game, it's their final probably,
01:37as many times as Liverpool come anywhere.
01:41But it is true that if you play with a team that hasn't played so much together,
01:47that is always a bit more difficult for the players,
01:50but I think we've seen already a few times when we played with a team that hasn't played much together,
01:55even in Eindhoven in the Champions League game,
01:57these players were able to play a very good game.
02:00So I think it's important, these moments, for some players that don't get many playing times,
02:08to have that playing time, so whenever we need them they are ready.
02:11If you never play them then it's so difficult for them to be ready
02:15if we do get some injuries or suspensions.
02:17So, yeah, we will definitely use a few players that haven't played that much,
02:22but we will make that final call tomorrow.
02:27Last night Jamie Carragher described Virgil van Dijk as being too good for the highest level of football,
02:33he went on to say it almost feels like there should be another level above for van Dijk,
02:38because he plays the game with such ease,
02:40which backs up the argument that he could be the best ever centre-half in the Premier League.
02:44I just wonder what you think, and also what you hope the future brings for him,
02:48both this season and beyond.
02:50So they are friends again?
02:52Yeah, it appears so.
02:54No, I think Virgil deserves every compliment he gets,
02:59he's been outstanding for this club for so many years,
03:02and since I'm working here he's been outstanding for me as well,
03:05for the performances he brings in.
03:08Yesterday he was again an example of that.
03:12He was also in a good manner aggressive, he led the team in a way,
03:20with the ball we all know what he can do, but also without the ball he was sharp and ready,
03:25and it was not a coincidence that it took 80 minutes before they had their first shot on target.
03:30So Virgil, like many others, has a good season,
03:36but he wants, just like all the others, to make it a great season,
03:40and therefore we have to play still many games.
03:42And what do you hope the future brings for him?
03:45How do you say this? A health.
03:49A good health.
03:50A good health, yeah, for him and his family, that's the first thing I wish him.
03:54And I hope I can enjoy working with him for a long time,
03:57but I don't think that's a surprise for you.
04:00Not at all, thank you.
04:02Cheers. Conor Bradley showed last night again what an attacking threat he can be,
04:07getting that assist for the third goal, and the runs he makes for a right-back,
04:11quite unusual for a right-back, often through the centre, really high up.
04:14How do you make sure that there are no gaps left defensively
04:18when he's making so many runs like that?
04:21First of all, not lose the ball, that's the smartest thing you can do,
04:26and the good thing is that the players that have the ball,
04:28and he has to understand when he has to make that run.
04:32And this was what led to the final, a very good choice, because Maka had the ball,
04:37and he had the ball quite open, so he was not under any threat.
04:40And if Maka has the ball, I would make a run as a team-mate as well,
04:45because it's a fair chance that he will find you in the perfect moment,
04:49in the perfect pass, with the perfect pass.
04:53First of all, it's about the timing, when do you make these runs,
04:56if the ball is under threat then maybe it's not a smart moment,
04:59but if the ball is completely open and we can change sides,
05:01it's a perfect moment for him to start his run.
05:04And, of course, we always have Ibu and Virgil and the other full-back behind the ball,
05:10including Ryan, so if for whatever reason we do lose the ball over there,
05:15it's not like there are no defenders left anymore.
05:19I know fans have been very happy with Conor's performances when he's played,
05:23if Trent Alexander-Arnold were to be injured for a long time,
05:26or if you were to leave the club,
05:27is Conor Bradley good enough to be your first-choice regular right-back?
05:31He would be proud of you.
05:33That you've come up with a different idea of asking this question.
05:37LAUGHTER
05:41I think it's fair to say that for many positions we have two very good players,
05:47so that's for the right full-back position,
05:49for the left full-back position we've got more than two good centre-backs,
05:52and I can go up through the whole team telling you this.
05:56So it's also normal if you work at a club of this magnitude
06:00and that wants to compete for every trophy,
06:02that you have more than 11 good players,
06:04and the right full-back position is definitely an example of that.
06:07Chris?
06:09Arnus, several of the players have talked about this year
06:11having more time to live a normal life than in the past,
06:15being husbands, in some cases fathers,
06:19is that something that you consciously take into account
06:23to keep the squad fresh, keep them happy?
06:27Is that a conscious strategy, or it just so happens that,
06:32compared with your predecessor, that's just the way you do things?
06:35I can't compare with how it was, but it's definitely,
06:38if you want to call it a strategy,
06:40I see them as human beings as well.
06:43We are working very hard if we are here at Ajax and if we are playing a game,
06:49I think that was a great example yesterday again of how these players work.
06:53But if you want to just keep on going for such a long season,
06:57because they never have a week or two weeks off,
07:01then I think at certain moments they have to be at home as well
07:04and being a father or a husband as well.
07:09Because if you are only a football player for 15, 16, 17 years,
07:14with only three weeks off during the summer,
07:17and if you can only be a father or a husband for three weeks a year,
07:20that would not be human.
07:22So, of course we take this into account, but we do these things mainly
07:27because we think it benefits us for winning football games.
07:32And part of that manifests itself in, for example, staying at home the night before a home match,
07:38rather than all gathering in a hotel, as has been done in the past?
07:43That's part of it, the other part is that people tell me,
07:46people that have more knowledge than me about this,
07:48that you always sleep better in your own bed than in a hotel bed.
07:52And sleep is a very important part of getting the best possible performance.
07:59So it's not only the argument you just gave for them to be at home with their families,
08:05but it's definitely also that they are better prepared for a game,
08:09in the opinion of people that tell me this.
08:12And I have no reason not to believe them, because if you use common sense,
08:16I think everybody can understand that you sleep better in your own bed than in a hotel bed.
08:20So it's not necessary, we indeed sleep at home.
08:27Hi, Jürgen. Liverpool were in contention for all trophies last season before they dropped top,
08:33are the team better placed to go for all four this season?
08:37It's difficult for me to judge because I wasn't here last season.
08:42So I don't know, I can only tell you that we are at this moment of time in a very good place.
08:48And I'm not only talking about the result yesterday evening, but the players are fit already.
08:53Not only the 11 that were on the pitch yesterday, but the ones that came in as well.
08:58So we're in a good place, but we also know how long the season still is,
09:04and how many difficult challenges there will still be for us.
09:08But we are in a good place.
09:12There's only one downside of beating Tottenham 4-0,
09:16because the last time we beat them 6-3, I think it was a week later,
09:19that we beat West Ham 5-0, and all of a sudden that was the bar.
09:22So when we just started winning 1-0,
09:25everybody was saying, they don't have the same form anymore.
09:30So, yeah, we are in a good place,
09:33but I'm not expecting us to win every single game in the manner we won it yesterday.
09:38But that's also not what I ask of them.
09:40We just try to do everything to win every single football match.
09:44And if it can happen like yesterday, in such a good and dominant performance, that's perfect.
09:48If not, we have to find another way to win that game.
09:54I just want to ask you about James McConnell, because he took the decision not to loan him out,
09:58and keep him around for the rest of the season.
09:59What is it you've seen from him that's impressed you so much?
10:04I think you watched the PSV game as well,
10:06so that's what you see, and what I see is him on the training pitch,
10:10competing with all other midfielders.
10:12And then I see a player that is, like I just said, competing with them.
10:17So he always gives everything he has.
10:21And Tyler Morton is out with an injury for a while,
10:28so that means he was maybe our sixth midfielder.
10:33And James is taking that position for the upcoming weeks as well.
10:40So it's a combination of both.
10:41It's him doing really well, and the injury of Tyler Morton.
10:45What's Tyler done?
10:49Am I allowed to say that?
10:51It's his shoulder, he has a shoulder injury.
10:53How long do you think he'll be out for?
10:55Four weeks, or maybe even longer.
11:03How's Alisson? I don't know what the issue was yesterday.
11:06You said he just rested.
11:09Yeah, I think I said before the game that almost every time
11:13we played the second goalkeeper in the League Cup,
11:16so at right-hand it was feet,
11:18because at that moment of time Kweef wasn't the number one,
11:21because Alisson wasn't injured at that moment.
11:24There was only one exception, and that was Tottenham away,
11:28where Alisson came back from an injury,
11:30and I thought and felt he needed some extra playing time.
11:33Because if you come back from an injury,
11:35you see this with many players,
11:37they sometimes need a bit of time to be at their best again.
11:41They're still good, but for them to be at their best again.
11:44And then three days later we played the Ecclestone-Stanley game,
11:47and then three days later we played Forest,
11:49and with him being just back from an injury,
11:51for me it felt better for him to play,
11:52and then have a week's rest, and then have nothing on Forest.
11:56So that was more with the idea of being best possible prepared for the League.
12:00And yesterday was a League Cup game, so that meant Kweef was on goal,
12:06and he absolutely deserved to be on goal for everything he did this season.
12:11So will you leave it to the fans and decide who will play in the final?
12:17We never know what the situation around the final is, how fit is everyone,
12:22do they need a game, yes or no, so I cannot guarantee anything.
12:25I never guarantee anything towards players, so far in advance.
12:30And that's not what I'm going to do now as well.
12:33Hi, Jürgen, you spoke earlier about the difficulty of leaving players out of the squad
12:37when they've been fit and training well.
12:40Depending upon the outcome of this game and maybe a subsequent draw,
12:43this could be the last game of the season for some players in the squad,
12:46so in that desire to impress and maybe stay involved,
12:50is there a danger maybe their performance is more about their individual ambitions
12:54rather than those of the team, and is this something you'd maybe discuss with some of them?
12:58No, don't discuss this. If I have to discuss this now,
13:00I didn't do my work properly for the first six, seven or eight months.
13:04I think I tried to convince them every single day that only the individual performance
13:10can be of a high level if the team performance is of a high level.
13:13And if they now think that they need to do individual things to get playing time with me,
13:20then I did something wrong in the past seven or eight months.
13:24They don't get playing time because they score free goals or have a great attacking.
13:30They first of all need to work as hard for the team as, for example, the players did yesterday.
13:36And if you cannot bring this, then you have hardly any chance to come into the team.
13:40If you do bring this, then I'm not judging them on quality,
13:43because I know all of them have quality,
13:44so then sometimes you have a good game and sometimes you have an OK game.
13:49But the only thing I understand is that you work incredibly hard,
13:53and that's the only chance you have to come into this team.
13:58Arno, the Aston Villa game is now moved forward to the Bridgestone 19.
14:03Do you have any view on that, or is it just one of those things?
14:08Oh, yeah. We want to be competing for every trophy, we want to be in every competition.
14:14We must not complain about the amount of games we have to play.
14:19I don't see an advantage or disadvantage,
14:24so we play probably Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday or something like this,
14:27and Aston Villa will probably do the same.
14:31It is what it is. I said before, two or three days ago,
14:36maybe that's the last time I have to talk about this,
14:38that if you are a club that has to play so many games,
14:41even clubs that don't have to play so many games have 22, 23 players,
14:46and then to go to a game with 20 players, that's not a problem,
14:50because you can only make five substitutions, but you want to create something,
14:54and you want to give academy players a chance once in a while as well.
14:57And if you can only bring 20 players,
14:59that is the biggest problem for the academy players.
15:02If I would have had 23 players yesterday,
15:05then James McConnell and maybe Rio or Trey were in the squad,
15:10and it was an ideal moment for them to get a bit of playing time yesterday.
15:13But, yeah, I could only bring 20.
15:15So I think if you look at the long-term future for England,
15:19for their players, for the academy players,
15:21it would be a smart decision to go to 23.
15:24And don't tell me that that is the disadvantage of the smaller clubs,
15:28because I have nine fantastic substitutes if I have 20.
15:32So it's not that I then all of a sudden have 12 great substitutes,
15:36nine is already enough, but it's more giving chances to younger players,
15:42that would be beneficial if we go to 23, like every other league in Europe.
15:50Except for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Tyler Mourton,
15:52how happy are you to have a nearly fully fit squad at this stage of the season?
15:57Yeah, you can answer that question yourself, I think as well.
16:02It's something you want if you have to play so many games,
16:07and the importance of the games are only growing and growing,
16:10you want to have as many players available as you can.
16:14I have to give big compliments not only to the performance staff,
16:17but also to the players, because they put a lot of effort in to stay as fit as they are.
16:22It's not only what they do on the training ground or what they do during the game,
16:26if you look at how professional they are around the training session before and after,
16:31then it's not a surprise to me that they stay as fit as they are at the moment.
16:36Arjen, you said a couple of months ago you thought Darwin had a couple of things to improve
16:41in terms of his all-round game, the last few weeks his link-up play seemed very good to me at least,
16:47what have you made of Darwin and his all-round game in the last month or so?
16:51Yeah, better indeed. I think in general we used the number 9 better and better
16:57than we maybe did in the beginning of the season,
17:00so that is the positive thing of playing more games, training more,
17:04have more meetings together, that you can highlight that a bit more as well.
17:08I think in the beginning of the season we were quite dependent on our wingers,
17:12but I see that we are starting to use our 9 more and more in situations that we have to use them,
17:18and as a result of that, these players come in promising positions
17:22and they have just as much quality as our wingers.
17:25So if you put Jota in a promising position, or if Lucio plays there, or Darwin,
17:30they will give you what we are all hoping for, and that's golden assists.