Slot relaxed after Liverpool's comfortable 4-1 Ipswich win
25/01/2025
Anfield, Liverpool, UK
25/01/2025
Anfield, Liverpool, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00The first ones?
00:04We're spinning.
00:06Anything else?
00:08Ander?
00:09Arnoud, today looked like a very comfortable afternoon,
00:12work for you, you saw it?
00:14Yeah.
00:16Yeah, that's mostly because we scored an early goal.
00:22It's been a few times now that we played a home game
00:25that we conceded a goal in the start of the game.
00:28But I think today is the way you want to start the game.
00:31We were aggressive, dominant for 85 minutes.
00:37They've hardly been on our half, I think.
00:41It is a counter-attack threat with the wingers they have and with the left,
00:46but we managed to control that so, so well
00:49because of the amount of work we've put in.
00:52And in the end, of course, we're all a bit disappointed
00:55with conceding a corner, the first one this season.
00:59But for 85 minutes it was almost a perfect performance
01:04against a team that goes to such a low block.
01:08That's not always easy then,
01:11but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.
01:16Jürgen, Mo, you scored a goal,
01:19but Mo, in the past, lost it,
01:22it seems from about 25 yards,
01:24but that didn't take away the team at all.
01:26As a manager, that was just...
01:31Yeah, it's also nice that you come up with it
01:35because mostly it's about Mo, it's about his contract,
01:38or it's about his goals.
01:40And now it's about his defensive work rate.
01:43No, I think that stood out because it was a moment
01:47which we could all see,
01:49but I think if you look at almost all the times we've lost the ball,
01:52I saw a reaction of many players like that.
01:55And that is what I mean with playing against a team with fast wingers,
01:58with a good number nine that goes to such a low block.
02:01It's so difficult to control the counter-attack
02:03and the only way to do so is what Mo did in this moment
02:07and all the other players did in different moments.
02:11Yeah, that's why I was pleased with our performance today.
02:18Hi, Jürgen. I just want to ask you about Dominic Sala's line.
02:21At the start of the season, he was only having one or two shots per game.
02:24In the last three or four games, he's been having five, six, seven shots per game.
02:28Is that something you said to him?
02:31I think that's a development the team is in,
02:34because when we played Brentford we had 37 shots,
02:38a record in the Premier League for an away team.
02:41And then, because he's involved in that team,
02:43he will probably take a few shots then as well.
02:46So it is us, the players behind the ball,
02:49bringing our attacking players even more in promising positions
02:53than we did in the beginning of the season.
02:55Then if you zoom in on Dom,
02:59I think in the beginning of the season he would have played that ball to Mo,
03:03which was for most of the time a very good choice,
03:06because Mo can definitely score a goal as well.
03:09And now he decided to go for himself and score the goal himself.
03:12So, yeah, nice for him, because in my opinion he's a bit underestimated.
03:18Not by me, but he doesn't always get the credits for the fact
03:23that he's very important for this team,
03:25because his work rate is unbelievable.
03:28He just keeps on running with the highest intensity,
03:31and that is so important for a team that wants to compete for something.
03:36Jürgen, there's been an enormous policy on the floor,
03:41but you see him today constantly talking and giving instructions to people.
03:45How important is that to have in a league like that on the pitch,
03:48as well as having to be very comfortable?
03:51If I have to make a list of what Virgil brings to this team,
03:54then we can just go to the next press conference on Tuesday evening against PSV,
04:00because he brings so many positives to this team.
04:04Bringing the ball out from the back, defending...
04:07Is composure the right word?
04:09Yes.
04:11He's definitely a leader.
04:13As a manager, I haven't worked with a lot of players
04:16that can say that they are a leader, but Virgil is definitely a leader.
04:20He's always not only on the pitch, but also on the training ground.
04:24The moment we start the training, he's the loudest one and always leads by example.
04:31He's having a fantastic season,
04:33but I think he's already having seven or eight fantastic seasons over here.
04:38Joe?
04:40Endo seemed to get a painful one in the chest, and then I think he got caught in the face as well.
04:44Were you concerned at that stage when you saw it?
04:48Yeah, when the foul was made I was like,
04:51ooh, that doesn't look good, and the reactions from the players that were around him
04:55showed me that I was like, ooh, let's wait and see.
04:59But after the game, immediately during the game already,
05:03he shakes his head one or two times and just goes again.
05:07His mentality is unbelievable.
05:10And he was fine. It was only a yellow,
05:13so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic,
05:18because, yeah, it was only a yellow.
05:21Or the score was 3-0 or 4-0, so the referee decided not to give a red card?
05:28I don't know. In general, I don't think referees act like that,
05:34because if they do, they hear it from the people above them,
05:39you have to do what is necessary.
05:42So I assume that it was a yellow. I haven't seen it back, but I assume it was a yellow.
05:48Jürgen, something about what you said yesterday about the Liverpool fan,
05:53does that mean he was a Liverpool fan before you arrived at Liverpool,
05:57and do you think he would have been more entertained?
06:00What I meant and what I said was that after the Lille game,
06:05he said, for Liverpool standards, and maybe even for the standards where my teams play,
06:11he found it not as exciting as all the ones before,
06:15because I think three days before we had 37 shots in away games at Brentford.
06:21So I think we've set the bar or the standards quite high, even for my father.
06:27For him to say maybe the Lille game wasn't as exciting
06:30as all the other games I've seen from Liverpool and from my former clubs,
06:35it would be a bit simple or cheap to say that he was the biggest fan of Liverpool
06:40before I arrived here, because that's simply not true.
06:43He's the biggest fan of Feyenoord, because I worked there,
06:46and at the moment he's one of the biggest fans of Liverpool, because I work here.