Liverpool boss Arne Slot on their injury issues, Manchester United being better than their results show and the future of Trent Alexander Arnold
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Morning.
00:06The team you're facing, the 4-team, is arguably one of the worst Manchester United sides ever,
00:11do you plan to arrest any players?
00:17So that's a strange question.
00:22No, of course I'm not going to plan to arrest any player because it's a big game,
00:27and I think for me, I said it before the first fixture and I can say it one more time,
00:35they have much better players, in my opinion, than maybe the league table shows at the moment,
00:41and I think it's going to take a while maybe for Ruben Alberin to bring this out of the players,
00:47I don't know, but they will definitely go up,
00:53and they are much, much better than the league table shows at the moment.
00:59Against West Ham, the performance from Mo Salah was incredible,
01:03Trent Alexander-Arnold was fantastic as well, 26, how much better do you think he can get?
01:08There's always room for improvement for every player, so Mo is 32 and he can still do things better,
01:14it's hard to say because he's on such great numbers,
01:18but just before I came in I was checking our game against West Ham
01:24and I saw him at half-time, Mo, walking off the pitch a bit frustrated when we were 3-0 up,
01:31and I think that had to do with him missing a few chances that he's not used to,
01:36but Trent can still improve, I think I saw a bit of improvement already this season,
01:42so these players are top of the world, so there's not a lot of room for improvement anymore,
01:46but there's always a bit of improvement, and especially defensively,
01:50Trent, in my opinion, has made a step up this season.
01:55And I think in some games he was outstanding in every part of the game,
02:00but there's been sometimes a bit of an up-and-down as well in other games.
02:06He could have done a bit better, so it's about consistency for top players,
02:12and that is maybe where the biggest improvement for Trent is.
02:17We've all heard about the bit from Real Madrid about Trent,
02:21have you spoken to him at all since then?
02:24I speak to every player once in a while, and that is the same for Trent.
02:29So, yes, I spoke to him, yeah.
02:34Hi, Arna, can we just check where Ibrahim, Penalty, Joe Gomez and Bradley are
02:38with their recovery, and if you're expecting to be missing anyone else this weekend?
02:43Yeah, Joe is of course not in a good place when it comes to his injury,
02:47he's out for a few weeks, that's for sure,
02:50and Conor and Ibo will train with us today for the first time.
02:54So, yeah, curious and interested to see where they exactly are.
02:59Of course they've worked hard to come back to the team,
03:02but the next step is always how do you handle team sessions?
03:08So they will train with us today.
03:11And the rest of the squad is in good shape as well?
03:14Yeah, of course they still have to come in, but we trained yesterday.
03:18I assume everybody is fit, although we are in a period of time
03:23where some people get sick as well, but nothing heard about that yet.
03:28So hopefully everybody is ready to be part of,
03:31except for Joe Gomez, to be part of the game on Sunday.
03:35You obviously took charge of this club in different circumstances
03:38after that of Ruben Amoran at Manchester United,
03:41but can you sympathise with the pressure he's under
03:44as a manager also taking charge of a Premier League club for the first time?
03:48I think every manager sympathises with every other manager,
03:52because we all know how much pressure this job brings.
03:56That's not different for him than for me or for any other manager
04:01that works in the Premier League, or somewhere else around the world.
04:05This is a job where there's a lot of pressure.
04:07This is also something we like, otherwise we definitely must not do this.
04:11And, like I said, he's done so well at Sporting Portugal,
04:18and again, I think he has a good squad of players as well,
04:24so he will eventually bring the best out of them.
04:28Mo Salah scored and provided two assists last time you two met,
04:32and top scorer in the Premier League as well.
04:35Is there a better player in the world right now than Mo Salah?
04:38That's a question I got after the West Ham game,
04:41and I think it's difficult to compare players,
04:43so if I only look at my own team, not the other teams,
04:47Virgil also has an outstanding season, but he doesn't have the numbers like Mo,
04:52because he's a defender.
04:55So it's difficult to judge players in different positions,
04:59but the numbers Mo has at the moment speak for itself,
05:03and mostly when we talk about the best players in the world we talk about attackers,
05:08so it's been for a long time, Messi and Ronaldo,
05:12so if you simply look at his numbers and the way he's playing,
05:16the work rate he has for the team, he's definitely a great player.
05:24Hi, Jorna, the scrutiny that Premier League managers come under is incredibly intense,
05:30and when results aren't going your way, then you come in for a bit of hammer,
05:34that's happening now for Ruben Hamer and for others,
05:38how difficult though is it as a manager to stick to your principles when things do go wrong,
05:46and you have your own ideas, and yes, there's some flexibility within that,
05:52but when results go against you and you want to stay true to your principles,
05:57how difficult is it to try and turn things around but maintain what it is that's got you to where you are?
06:06That always depends. You can only look at the score,
06:12and sometimes it's difficult to convince players,
06:15but you can also look at the performance, and for example,
06:17I've watched before we played Tottenham the game against Man Utd,
06:23and then when it came to performance, I think there were a lot of things they did really well.
06:29So this is what you can show to the players, but I don't think any manager in this league,
06:35because they are so experienced, they've done so well in so many clubs,
06:41they don't need my advice, but you are asking me what would I do if the results go against you,
06:47you try to focus on performance.
06:51Even though when results go your way, like it is at the moment for us,
06:54I still show the players how small the margins are.
06:59I think we were 2-1 up against Leicester when Mo got quite a big chance in the 18-yard box of Leicester.
07:09We lost the ball, he lost the ball, counter-attack, and they were in front of Alisson.
07:14That was on 2-1, I think somewhere around the 70th minute.
07:17Margins in football when it comes to results are really small,
07:21because this is a low-scoring sport.
07:23If you play basketball or tennis, then mostly the one that's best always wins the game,
07:28but in football that doesn't always happen because it's a low-scoring sport.
07:31So these margins are really small, and then if you only focus on results,
07:35and the last three or four results for United didn't go their way,
07:38but the second-half performance against Newcastle was also really good for them.
07:43So there have been moments in games or longer periods in games that they've played really well,
07:47and I think these are the things you focus on as a manager if the results don't go your way.
07:53This game will mark seven years to the day since Virgil van Dijk made his Liverpool debut,
07:59scoring the winner in a Merseyside derby, so a fabulous start.
08:03You knew a lot about him, of course, before you came here.
08:06What's enabled him to become the Rolls-Royce of a defender that he is?
08:11Even as he gets older there appear to be so few blemishes to his game,
08:15and you can count the mistakes he makes almost on the fingers of one hand.
08:20What is it about him that makes him so special?
08:23Then I have to make a long list, because the best players in the world have so many great attributes,
08:30so I think Virgil has a lot of game intelligence, so he reached the game really well.
08:35He's big and strong, he's fast.
08:39I was impressed by how he is in ball possession.
08:46That was from the first session I did, I was like, whoa, this is someone...
08:52He can delay his choice, he can wait for the last moment to play a ball through the line,
08:56so, yeah, he's a complete player, which is probably the same like Mo,
09:01otherwise you don't belong to the best players in the world,
09:03or THE best player in the world in your position.
09:06So, one of the reasons is that they hardly have anything that is not good enough.
09:11Of course, even for Virgil, there are some things of his game we would like to see,
09:18he could improve on a bit, you're probably going to ask me what, but I'm telling Virgil this.
09:22But he's doing outstanding for us, and one of the things I didn't say now,
09:28but I said in many other press conferences,
09:30he's also the one that leads the team from start to finish,
09:34and we start to finish, I mean, if we go out on the training ground,
09:38the moment I blow my whistle and the exercise starts,
09:41I will hear for sure one player, and that's Virgil.
09:44So he brings a lot of positive energy to the club as well,
09:48and a lot of positive energy in the group.
09:52He's done really well, but that is also the standard at this club,
09:56if you don't perform like this, then you're not good enough anymore to play for this club,
10:00so they have to keep staying at this level to play for this club,
10:04and that's what they've done, Mo and Virgil, for eight years now, maybe?
10:08Mo a bit longer?
10:10Yeah, a bit longer.
10:14Arne, your squad has over 30 league winners' medals in it,
10:20how much stock do you put in that experience, how valuable?
10:23Do you see that being in the second half of the season?
10:2630 league medal winners, that means that the whole team won the league 30 times?
10:32Is that what you mean?
10:34Yeah, maybe sometimes in the same team, but, yeah, OK.
10:37The Premier League team in 1920, obviously still in the squad.
10:41OK. How much difference does this make, that was your question?
10:45How much stock do you put in that? How valuable is that?
10:47It's always important that you have players or staff members that know how to win things,
10:54but I would be surprised if I worked at a club like Liverpool,
10:57you would have told me,
10:59but I don't know of anyone who has won the league in their career,
11:02because we are here at one of the best clubs in the world,
11:05so it's normal that there are players over here that have won many things in their career.
11:10So it is definitely helpful, but the most thing that helps us win games is work rate,
11:17and quality of the players.
11:20Of course, sometimes it can help if you are used to winning big games,
11:25but that's what's quite normal if you play at this club,
11:29that you are used to playing big games.
11:31Have you maybe seen specific moments in tough circumstances in the first half of the season
11:36where you've noticed that kind of...
11:40It goes beyond leadership, but moments where the players are taking it upon themselves
11:45to marshal themselves in situations?
11:47Yeah. Last half-hour against Newcastle I saw players that really stepped up.
11:54A team that really stepped up.
11:57And sometimes I think Southampton was a bit the same,
12:00not the league cup game but the other one, in a difficult position.
12:05So, yeah, definitely some moments, and I can come up with probably some other games,
12:09but the one that really stands out was Newcastle,
12:12I think we had a tough first half, tough first hour.
12:16And then when Trent came in, when Dominic came in,
12:21and from the ones that stayed in the team they found another gear,
12:26and there you could see how special they are.
12:42Do you really think...?
12:44LAUGHTER
12:47What was your response to him?
12:49No, I can completely understand the question you're asking,
12:52but I think you already know the answer.
12:55These conversations I have never shared, not about Trent, not about any other,
13:00what I talked to them about, I just said the same about Virgil,
13:03of course there are things Virgil can improve, I talked to him about this as well.
13:07It was a conversation, as many others we had, me and Trent,
13:13and, yeah, let's leave it to that.
13:17For some players it might be destabilising for that interest,
13:22would it be difficult to come at this stage of the season?
13:25If it would destabilise players at Liverpool, if other people talk about them,
13:31then we would really have a problem, because if you play at one of the biggest clubs in the world,
13:36everybody always for 12 months long is talking about you,
13:41sometimes in relation to other clubs, that happens so, so, so many times for our players,
13:47that if that destabilises them, then we really would have had a problem,
13:52not only now but in the past six months,
13:55because I think there were some talks about our players also in the last six months,
14:01and I don't think they destabilised them at all.
14:11I can tell you that he's playing on Sunday.
14:15That he is. And hopefully he brings the same performances he brought in for the last half-year,
14:21because I think everybody saw how great of a first half of the season he had,
14:26how much he is here, how much he wants to win here.
14:31He played an incredible game against West Ham,
14:34I think we all remember that pass he gave, I think it was second we played to that side,
14:39that was the first half pass he gave to Mo,
14:44so I see him on the training ground every day working his arse off.
14:49So he's fully committed to us, and he will play on Sunday.
14:55If they don't tell me he's sick, but I don't expect them to.
14:59Hi, Jürgen. Around this time last season,
15:01a struggle in Manchester United's side off the back of a few home defeats
15:05came to Anfield to face a Liverpool team looking to go top of the table.
15:08Liverpool had 34 shots that day, they didn't score any of them.
15:12So what do you think is the key to making sure the dominance in the league table
15:16is reflected in the final scoreboard?
15:18Yeah, the things I've said many times, if you want to win a game you have to outwork the opponent,
15:24then second of all you need a good balance in set-pieces,
15:28especially in the big games against quality players.
15:32And then if that is balanced out or that is the same,
15:35then it's mostly about the quality of the players.
15:39So if you have 34 shots, that tells me you need a bit of luck as well sometimes during a game.
15:45But maybe it was also really well defended by United, I don't remember the game really well,
15:51so maybe they threw themselves in front of a ball every time,
15:54that's also part of winning games.
15:57We need to be prepared in the best possible way,
16:02because every game in the Premier League is a difficult one,
16:07but especially a game where you face quality players,
16:11I think we'll feel, OK, this is a chance for us to make their fans proud again.
16:18So if they do the same winning at West Ham United away, the fans will like it,
16:24but it's even more important for them to win here at Anfield.
16:27And then quality players are always dangerous if they set their mind to something,
16:32so we have to be really, really well prepared to beat United.