Arne Slot relieved after ten man Liverpool comeback to draw 2-2 with Fulham
14/12/2024
Anfield stadium, Liverpool, UK
14/12/2024
Anfield stadium, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Jürgen, do you look at that as a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty,
00:14positive or negative, the way you managed to come back in those circumstances?
00:21Yeah, I think it's exactly the opposite from our Girona game,
00:27where I was pleased with the result but not with the performance.
00:31But I was only pleased with the result, now I'm very, very, very happy about our performance.
00:37I couldn't have asked for more, but of course not with the result,
00:40because if you drop points in a home game against Fulham,
00:43that's definitely not what you expect and what you want.
00:48But yeah, being two times a goal down, so many things go against you,
00:54except for one thing, that is our players and our fans, and that was outstanding today.
01:01Jürgen, you said on a bit of a television interview
01:05that Andy Roberts was potentially injured a bit,
01:08and you thought he would have been a bit quicker otherwise.
01:11Was it the case that you considered taking him off, and how is he?
01:16No, I think what the team showed today, the character they showed,
01:19that is also what Robbo showed, and sometimes if you get a kick like this,
01:23two studs on a knee, that can hurt for a few minutes,
01:26and then if you just keep on running it gets better and better,
01:29and that's what we were hoping for.
01:31Not in the least, if that's the way to say it,
01:33because I only had one defender on the bench, which is not a left full-back as well.
01:40So you were hoping he was managing to come through it, and I think he did quite well,
01:44but the moment I noticed that he wasn't completely himself
01:48was the one time that they put the ball in behind and he started running,
01:52he was just able to head it back to Ali, but I felt, OK, let's see how this continues,
01:57and I think it was quite fast afterwards where he conceded the red card.
02:04Nothing to blame on him, character that he wanted to continue,
02:07because he got quite a hard knock on his knee with two studs.
02:12So, unfortunately, it led to a red card that was a deserved red card.
02:20You mentioned the inters of David Robertson early on,
02:23were you surprised he was only given the yellow for that one,
02:26given how high it was at the time, or had a chance to do it back?
02:31If I look back at the 100 minutes I saw, I wasn't surprised he didn't give a red card.
02:41It's up to you how you want to read this comment.
02:45No, but it's been judged by the VAR,
02:49I didn't even see it because someone stood in front of me,
02:52so I was, why is he on the ground?
02:54And then people told me, oh, he got quite a hard knock.
02:59But, yeah, the referee gave a yellow, the VAR didn't change it, so it can happen.
03:08How impressed were you with Robertson's performance on the back three?
03:13Impressed, like everyone who was in the stadium or saw the game.
03:17Ryan did outstanding again today, without the ball he was mostly in our last line,
03:24had to play sometimes against the nine, against Wingers who are really fast,
03:30and with the ball he came into the midfield.
03:33But an outstanding performance from him, but if we only highlight him,
03:37I don't think I give enough credit to all the other ones that played next to him
03:42and around him, because they all couldn't have asked for more.
03:47Dominate the game, more ball possession with ten men,
03:49more chances created, everything what you want.
03:53Unfortunately for us, maybe the only chance they got with ten men led to a goal.
04:02So, yeah, that sometimes happens as well.
04:04Greg?
04:06When you go down to ten men,
04:07are you very clear on what you know what you want to do next?
04:10Can you prepare for that?
04:13No, because you never know which player is going to go out and which team you've lined up,
04:17so it always depends on the players you have available how you are going to react to that.
04:22Are you one goal down, are you one goal up?
04:24So that makes a difference.
04:25So if you're one goal up, you might consider to defend with a lot of players.
04:30So then I might have considered to bring immediately a defender in,
04:33but if you're one goal down, you see it differently.
04:36So first you take a look at the tactic board and you think,
04:38oh, this might be a good option, and that's what we did for five minutes.
04:42But looking at it, it looked better on the tactic board than on the pitch,
04:49with Cody being a left-back.
04:52So we changed that after five minutes and our message got across, I think,
04:57even better at half-time, where you can tell them even more clearly what we expect from them.
05:04And then it helps if you immediately score the 1-1, what doesn't help,
05:07we had great momentum that the game was again delayed for three, four, five minutes
05:14immediately after we scored the goal, because they were on the ground.
05:18And that happened a bit too much for us to keep the momentum going.
05:22So everybody's saying, yeah, you've played quite a lot of time, that's true.
05:25But the momentum is then like this if every time there's a treatment for an injury.
05:35Lewis.
05:36You must be delighted with your subs as well, Diogo and Darwin coming on,
05:41getting the point at the end of that?
05:44Yeah, first of all, we're delighted to have some players back,
05:47because we've had our injuries.
05:51The good thing is that nobody spoke about it, because that means you get results.
05:55But to have them available at this moment of time was really helpful,
05:59because there are two journalists over here,
06:02so they were not surprised maybe by the substitutions I made.
06:06Maybe you as well, you weren't.
06:07But we just thought, bring all the players in that can score a goal.
06:12And then to see them working so hard without the ball,
06:15so we had five or six players who are mainly offensive players,
06:20but them to be able, with ten, to keep the other team away from goal
06:23and still create chances was great to see.
06:27And indeed, Jota, Darwin had impact, but Harvey had impact as well,
06:32being out for two months now.
06:34It's good to have him back also.
06:37Thank you, everyone.