Slot delighted as Liverpool secure champions league knock out spot after 1-0 Girona win
10/12/2024
Estadi Montilivi, Girona, Spain
10/12/2024
Estadi Montilivi, Girona, Spain
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SportsTranscript
00:00This way.
00:07Evening.
00:09First question.
00:13Richard.
00:15Hi, Jürgen. Congratulations, six wins out of six in Europe so far,
00:21and the job almost automatically to the top eight.
00:25How pleased are you with how it's gone so far for the Champions League?
00:30If you ask me about all the six games, I'm really pleased with all the results.
00:35I'm really pleased with the five games, the way we played.
00:38I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight.
00:44What are you not so pleased about?
00:48A lot, but especially two things.
00:52If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football,
00:57knows how to bring the ball out from the back,
01:00like some other teams we faced recently like City or Real Madrid,
01:03then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.
01:07But if you're every time waiting a few seconds before you press,
01:11and if you do press you are so easily outplayed,
01:14then this team can cause you a lot of problems,
01:16and that's what they showed during the whole Champions League campaign,
01:19except for PSV Eindhoven, in a way.
01:22So I almost feel sorry for them,
01:24because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign
01:27than the three points they have until now.
01:29But, yeah, we have an incredible goalkeeper.
01:32The other part was that every time we lost the ball we were not aggressive enough,
01:36so every time we lost the ball they could almost every time go all the way to our goal,
01:41having a shot or a blocked shot, and then we could attack again.
01:45So, hardly any control at all over the game.
01:48Maybe the second half was a bit better,
01:51but, yeah, I'm trying to be positive.
02:14Maybe the first five or ten minutes they went on a counter-attack one or two times still,
02:21yeah, like so many times this season,
02:25if a team plays us they do something different than they do all the other games.
02:30We might see this as a compliment for what we've done until now
02:35and the quality of our players,
02:37but, yeah, they played without denying, a bit similar to Leverkusen,
02:41so it wasn't always easy for us to press them well,
02:47but I don't think it had that much to do with tactics,
02:50because if it's only tactics in terms of how you have to defend,
02:53then it's when they have the ball, when they bring the ball out from the back.
02:56But if we lose the ball and they could also go all the way to our goal,
02:59that tells me that in general we were by far not aggressive enough without the ball.
03:05And maybe the goal helped us most, that we scored the goal from a penalty.
03:17Just on Daryl Noonan, a couple of missed chances in the first half,
03:22he seems a bit low on confidence, do you agree?
03:26What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances,
03:30then it's always the question, does this have anything to do with low of confidence,
03:33or is this a situation where he's in at the moment?
03:35I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in,
03:42and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you're not able to score.
03:47The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us.
03:50Today Mo again, but I would have loved to see Darwin score,
03:54because I think every striker who wants to score needs goals.
03:57That's why I kept him in for quite a long time.
04:00He was a threat, but unfortunately he couldn't score,
04:04because, yes, Alisson made a lot of saves,
04:07but I think if you make a highlight of this game
04:10we will see a few chances that we had as well,
04:13which is something normal.
04:16What is not normal is that we concede so many chances.
04:19Jordi Piquet from El Diario del PaÃs.
04:22I wanted to ask you if you think that Girona is a great team,
04:26but that they lose strength in the areas, especially in the rivals' area.
04:33Losing strength?
04:35That they lose strength or that they become weaker in the rivals' area.
04:41I don't know, I can only be positive about Girona.
04:44I have so, so, so much respect for them.
04:47Last year they were an incredible team to watch,
04:50they had so many quality players.
04:52Now, after the game, I can maybe be a bit more honest,
04:55because you don't say this before the game,
04:57but they lost a lot of quality players.
04:59They lost a lot of quality players,
05:01and I think that's something that we need to look at.
05:04I think that's something that we need to look at.
05:07And if you can still play like this,
05:09that is a big, big compliment for their manager,
05:12that he's able, in every Champions League game,
05:15to play his own style,
05:17to make it so difficult for PSG,
05:19difficult for Liverpool, difficult for Feyenoord.
05:22Those were the three games I watched most.
05:25And all because they have such a good idea
05:27about how they want to bring the ball out from the back.
05:30So, I would...
05:33If you give this manager the same quality players as he had last season,
05:37he will do exactly the same again,
05:39and top three, top five in this league.
05:43But unfortunately for them, it's mostly like this,
05:47they lose a bit of quality.
05:49Still good players, they still have good players,
05:51but not exactly the same quality as they had last season.
05:56Well done. Finish. Last one.
05:58Richard.
06:25When you go back to Alisson,
06:27you said all along that Alisson needs some time to get on with you,
06:31but I know you said he made some big saves,
06:33but just to build on that, he really showed tonight,
06:36why after two months he didn't look like he'd been away.
06:40No, no, no, he definitely didn't.
06:43Yeah, I set out a bit of a joke
06:45that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he really was,
06:49to give him so much work,
06:51but of course that was not our plan.
06:53But he showed again today why I said so many times
06:56that he's our first goalkeeper,
06:58that has nothing to do with grief, he did so, so well.
07:01But Alisson has been so important for this club for so many years,
07:06for his country as well,
07:08and showed today that he's probably one of the best,
07:11in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in the world.
07:13And let's hope he can continue bringing these performances in,
07:16let's even hope more that he can stay fit.
07:19Thank you, everyone.