Slot on Liverpool injury latest ahead of tough City trip
20/02/2025
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, UK
20/02/2025
AXA Training Centre, Liverpool, UK
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00:00How are we?
00:08Yeah, it's good, isn't it?
00:11Arnaut, obviously Arsenal played before you do this weekend,
00:15so they have an opportunity to at least ask the question of you,
00:19I just wonder, obviously it's impossible to ignore exactly what happens between Arsenal and West Ham,
00:24so how does that impact you, because if they win it feels like a much more pressurised situation
00:29to match their result?
00:32I think the biggest question to be asked is from Man City,
00:37because we face a strong team again, like we faced Vela.
00:41So, yeah, Arsenal played before us,
00:45but we know that doesn't make the game easier or more difficult than we have against City.
00:51We know we have 12 games to play and Arsenal has 13 games to play,
00:56so if we constantly look at Arsenal or what other teams are doing, that would not help us.
01:02We know already how difficult it is to go to the Etihad,
01:06so we don't need Arsenal to get involved in that even more.
01:10Yeah, the last win in the league came in 2015,
01:14obviously Liverpool have won in the Champions League since then, in 2018,
01:18so what are you expecting from City?
01:20Because they've had a disappointing season, they've had that disappointment in the Champions League,
01:24and obviously fighting for points to make sure they're in the Champions League next season.
01:28Yeah, what I always expect from City, since Pep is there,
01:31a great football team that can play so well,
01:35and they've had maybe one or two ones in the seven or eight years he's there now
01:39that weren't the best, maybe partly because of injuries as well.
01:43Injuries come back, they've signed three or four players,
01:46I can see them coming back already if you look at the result against Newcastle,
01:50so what you expect is what everybody expects if you go to the Etihad,
01:55if you play against City.
01:57You have to suffer as well, and work really hard to keep them away from your goal,
02:02because they are so, so good in multiple sessions.
02:05But yeah, they face a strong team as well that haven't lost for 22 games.
02:11Can I just ask about Darwin as well?
02:13Because there was so much attention on that one miss last night,
02:17how do you deal with that with Darwin himself,
02:20to make sure that he doesn't suffer too much because of it?
02:24Well, I can accept every miss,
02:26especially from a player that has scored two very important goals against Brentford,
02:30that score for us in the home game against Etihad.
02:34I would prefer him to score, but the word chance says it all,
02:39it's a chance, so it's not 100 per cent sure that the ball goes in.
02:42And players miss chances that I can accept,
02:46but what was a bit harder for me to accept was his behaviour after that chance.
02:53I think it got too much in his head,
02:56where he wasn't the usual Darwin that works his ass off and makes sure he helps the team.
03:03I think he was too disappointed after him missing that chance,
03:08and maybe we will never know, we will never find out.
03:11That's why he was just a fraction short the moment afterwards.
03:15I always truly believe that it's always the best to have Wata's mindset,
03:19and what I mean with that is that for the whole season he does the top eight,
03:23keeps on going, keeps on going, and whenever we need him he's ready.
03:26And that is very difficult, there are not many players that can do this.
03:30So, yeah, it's not about the chance for me,
03:34it's more about the 20 minutes afterwards where I want to talk to him,
03:39than about him missing a chance.
03:41You generally see that mindset from the group as a whole,
03:43because, as you mentioned, 22 games unbeaten in the Premier League
03:46since that defeat to Nottingham Park.
03:48Yeah, going 2-1 down against Villa, which was, in my opinion,
03:52completely against the run of players,
03:55so at half-time I also said to them,
03:58I can show you all the chances you've created,
04:01so I don't think 2-1 is the result that is logical at the moment,
04:05so if you just keep on going, we do it defensively a bit better,
04:08we will definitely get our chances again.
04:11And that's also what we got.
04:13Unfortunately, too many times this season we've missed too many chances,
04:20and what I mean by that is that I don't think we've stolen many points.
04:25I've always come back to the Chelsea game,
04:28where a draw was maybe more of a fair result,
04:31but for every other game I think we got what we deserved,
04:34or we deserved more, and that is more of a thing for me
04:39than Arsenal plays on Saturday and we on Sunday.
04:44Arno, what difference, you said a moment ago about City looking a bit better
04:48in recent weeks with the new players, with the injured players back,
04:51what's the difference that you've seen?
04:53That? Players available?
04:56The style of play has always been the same,
04:59for all these years Pep was in Barcelona, Bayern Munich or at City,
05:03that's what I like from every manager,
05:06if they wear different shirts you still know,
05:09ah, probably this is a team that is coached by Pep Guardiola.
05:13And that is what we've seen also in the period of time where they drop points.
05:19But, yeah, even he needs quality players to get results,
05:25and if so many players are out, and you see this with Ainsborg-Stoke-Groen as well,
05:29if you only have 10, 11, 12 players to play with in this league,
05:34in another league it's probably possible, but in this league it's so, so hard.
05:38So, yeah, now with players being back it's the same style of play,
05:42but the results are better.
05:44Obviously just lately you've had a lot of matches, a lot of league games as well,
05:48we're beginning to count down the games, the points and everything else,
05:52what are you learning about your team as you go through these challenges
05:56and go through these matches with the clock beginning to tick down to the end of the campaign?
06:01I'm not learning anything, you always learn in every game,
06:04but I see mostly the same things.
06:07These players are able to play every three days
06:10on the best of their capabilities in terms of physique.
06:14If you saw yesterday again, I'll mostly take Dom Sanders-Lai as an example,
06:20what a work rate for his third game in a row.
06:25Till the last, last, last second he kept on running up and down, up and down, up and down.
06:30And that's the only thing I can ask for and what the fans can ask for,
06:34and that we are then unlucky not to score our chances.
06:38That's football, unfortunately.
06:41But we cannot accept, not the fans, nor the fans, nor me,
06:44that they don't give maximum effort.
06:47But that's what they constantly do, and I assume that they will do Sunday again.
06:52But you never know the outcome, because we face, with Villa, with Everton away,
06:57also difficult opponents.
06:59The fixture list for us now is a few difficult ones in a row.
07:03That's what you have to accept.
07:06The good thing is that we are not behind someone, we are still number one,
07:11and that's the good thing if you go into a run of games like this.
07:16Is Gap put back for this one?
07:18Let's see, let's see, I hope.
07:21I'm not 100 per cent sure, because he hasn't trained with the team yet,
07:25maybe he does a bit today, I don't know.
07:28It will be a close call.
07:32Hi, Jürgen. Much better performance against Aston Villa than against Wolves,
07:37certainly with the ball, and if you consider Villa front-foot style,
07:43adventurous, similar to Manchester City in a lot of respects,
07:48in some ways does that favour Liverpool in terms of style,
07:53rather than playing against a low block,
07:56which certainly you'll have more possession,
07:59but trying to make penetrations in runs and create chances can often be more difficult.
08:03Yeah, it depends.
08:05If we play a team like Wolves we hardly concede a chance,
08:10and we hardly concede an attack, or against Everton,
08:16but if we play Villa people say,
08:20''Oh, it was quite open, it didn't look as if you defended that well as other games,''
08:26where we do get the compliments for the offensive part,
08:29so it's always in football, it's a bit of both.
08:32Every style of play you face means challenges,
08:36and with Villa, yes, we took the ball off them to score a goal,
08:41but they also had a long and very good attack when they scored.
08:46But I think in general people, and me definitely,
08:51prefer a game of football that we saw yesterday, even if you are neutral,
08:57because I think everybody enjoyed watching that game,
09:01and I don't think many people enjoyed watching the Wolves game.
09:04But of course that's not in the interest of Wolves,
09:07they are trying to stay up, so you have to accept every style of play.
09:12But everyone that loves football prefers a game of football like yesterday.
09:17Ryan Gravenberg has been one of the players of the season,
09:21and not just for Liverpool, probably in the Premier League,
09:24his effectiveness in recent games hasn't been as high,
09:29what do you put that down to?
09:31Is it maybe a possibility of not having a replacement who is exactly the same,
09:37or is it just the fact that he can't be 9 or 10 out of 10 every week?
09:42I think that is partly what it is, there are only a few players in the world
09:47that can be a 9 out of 10 every single three days,
09:51and if you look at his age he might eventually belong to those two or three or four players
09:58that can do this.
10:00But he's not there yet, which is completely normal,
10:03and it depends also on the playing style of the opponent,
10:06like you just said, so if you play Everton or Wolves,
10:09that's a completely different game than when you play Villa.
10:12I liked him yesterday much more than I liked him against Everton, for example.
10:17So, yeah, it's not always as simple as the form of a player or how many games he plays,
10:24but that's 9 or 10 times the most easy reason to give,
10:29instead of diving into it and looking at playing style and certain other things.
10:36Hi, I know you just touched on Cody Gappo,
10:39are there any other team news issues you're happy to contend with?
10:42I appreciate it's only 12 hours since you last spoke,
10:44is there any clarity on Conor Bradley?
10:46No, he still has to come in, so we don't know yet,
10:50but I would be completely surprised if he's involved in the Sunday game
10:55or the Wednesday game against Newcastle.
10:57So you can assume that that's not going to happen.
11:01Joe Gomez had a surgery for his hamstring injury, so he's out for a long time.
11:07He will be back maybe just before the end of the season.
11:10And then, of course, these two players are not injured,
11:13but they come back from an injury with Jota and Trent,
11:17so that's also the reason why they don't play 90 minutes five times in a row in 15 days,
11:23because that would be a big risk.
11:26And also on Darwin, going back to Darwin,
11:29obviously he's got in his head a bit, potentially, that miss.
11:33Do you have to also tell him how important he can be for the rest of the season,
11:36because there's so much to achieve?
11:38Yes, I will tell him that as well,
11:41but I think the most important message is you can miss a chance,
11:44but you can't miss out on work rate.
11:47That's for me a more important message than telling him,
11:51because that's the life of a striker, he knows he's 24, 25, 26, I don't know.
11:55He will probably have missed a few chances in his career,
11:58and he probably would have scored a few as well.
12:01So no problem at all, or no problem at all, of course.
12:04We'll have to see it differently, but it's part of the job of a number 9,
12:08part of your life that you sometimes miss, where people expect you to score.
12:12But it's not part of the job of a number 9 than to slow down in work rate,
12:18and that is something we will talk about.
12:23We've spoken a few times about the addition of getting chances for the starting number 9,
12:29and in the last two games Diogo Jota has managed to get 10 shots from starting positions.
12:35Are you pleased with that improved production,
12:38and how disappointed is he that only one of those 10 shots actually hit the target?
12:42Probably he will, although apart from him hitting the target,
12:46he gave a great assist as well.
12:49So it tells you maybe more how disappointed I am that we missed him for four to five months,
12:54then it tells you that something changed in our playing style.
12:58When he was there with us before, I think he was involved in a lot of goals scoring as well,
13:05so it tells you how much of a miss it has been not to have him.
13:10But, again, I would have loved to play him every single time, maybe for 90 minutes,
13:16but if a player is out for four or five months and he hasn't been out-out,
13:20he has been coming back, coming in, coming back,
13:22and every time we played him a bit too much he got injured again.
13:25So I hope people understand why we are so cautious now, because 12 games to go.
13:30And you tell me, and I see the same, how much of a threat he is.
13:34So we have to keep him available for 12 more games, and Champions League, and the League Cup final.
13:40But that is not an easy balance to find.
13:44I would have loved to keep him in the team because he played really well,
13:48for Trent the same, who takes out two players that are playing so well,
13:52that's only because it's a big injury risk to keep them in the team.
13:57So when I drove up, I was listening to the talk sports,
14:02and I don't know who he is, but his name was Mark Lawrenson or something like this,
14:06and he simply couldn't understand that I took Trent off.
14:09Which I understand from his perspective, because he played so well and he just scored a goal.
14:14But now maybe he does.
14:16I noticed you had a word with Trent when he came off, was he disappointed?
14:20Or did he understand the fact that it's for the long term?
14:23Yeah, we spoke about this already a week ago,
14:26that in these five games he already knows how many minutes he would make.
14:31That was in a situation where Conor was available as well,
14:35now maybe we have to adjust our plan.
14:38But I said to him, you know why I take you off, don't you?
14:41He said, yeah, yeah, yeah, we spoke about it.
14:44But of course a player has adrenaline, and he just scored.
14:48It was a better moment than against Wolves, where he lost the ball just before I took him off.
14:53So he's improving.
14:57Anything else?
14:59Thanks, Arne.