Liverpool could move 16 points clear at the top of the Premier League table by beating Southampton this weekend, before Arsenal takes on Manchester United on Sunday. Arne Slot has given his pre-match press conference and this is every word he had to say…
On Alisson Becker: “He saves shots! That is important but to become the world’s best you make saves others don’t and he had one or two of them on Wednesday. He didn’t have to make 27 saves but had two world-class saves for us and if you go 1-0 down the game would be even harder.”
On PSG: “We weren’t a little bit lucky, we were really lucky. But as Michael Jordon said once: the harder you work, the luckier you get. We were not the dominant team but we controlled them better in the second half. We were mentally and physically so strong, not giving away many open chances and even scoring on the counter shows how mentally and physically strong this side are.
“Is our name on the cup? If you want to win something, Premier League, Champions League or the cups, you need, once in a while, where you don’t play your best and you are ‘lucky’. No team plays 38 games only with football.
“Real Madrid one of the best example of that, they always find a way when the other team is better. My full focus is now on Southampton, the first of three finals for the upcoming week.
“For me, the Southampton game the most important of the week. If I make the choice to play others, it’s because I think it is the best choice to win the game. So if I make a change, it’s because it’s only two days in between games, so I might think others are better options. But that only has to do with us having a bigger chance to win this game, not PSG.”
Team selection ahead of a big week: “I don’t think that far ahead [next games]. You do know what to expect from PSG and Newcastle but Southampton is the most important. Three or four days between, I might start the same 11 but only two days between and we had to fight really hard. And it’s probably the 50th game in three months!
“So you take it all in account, and which players are best suited. We started with Diaz and Jota and Diogo is almost a midfielder as a striker, and then we finished with Curtis off the left who is a midfielder and Nunez who is a 9. You guys are only focused on PSG so far but Southampton have the same formation so we need to do much better to press the ball, so it is another good test for us”
Limited number of changes to his starting XI: “I see the advantages of playing mostly with the same team because they get used to each other and that helps. But I am also aware you cannot play a season with only 11 players. That is why you sometimes saw some players rotating. I don’t do this with 20 or 25 but mostly with 14 or 15, if possible. The others don’t always get the time they deserve.
“Harvey is a great example of this. He has done so well for this club and he trains well but he is in competition with Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai. I don’t think Mo was happy that I took him off five minutes before the end [against PSG] if you look at his body language. And there is a reason for that. He can score even if he isn’t playing his best game, so that is why I hardly take him off.
“Szoboszlai, you could call him a machine. Every time I put him on the pitch he is the one who runs the most. That makes it hard for Harvey and that is why I was so pleased for him. Some players are frustrated if they only get five minutes, but in our team that has never happened. Maybe once or twice! But in general, it has never happened.”
Squad’s hunger to keep going: “It’s not the headline. Mo was frustrated, but his behavior was normal; we shook hands, and maybe he thought he’d score the one chance that might come…
“People say it was a good substitution because Harvey scored but Mo would tell me he would have scored that too! At was a normal reaction [to being taken off]. All of them show great character and we need that tomorrow. They are not playing as a team who are bottom, they take risks, go man-to-man and they saw how difficult we had with that game plan against Paris.”
On difference touchline ban makes: “Now we have iPads. I have the same view as from the stands, so it is not neccessary to have a suspension to get a good view. The view is better [higher up] but you feel the emotions down by the pitch. Where I am sitting tomorrow, it is an ‘easy game’ to play but down by the pitch, it’s harder. I have a good replacement with John Heitinga. He did so well in his first game.”
General goalkeeper situation ahead of Giorgi Mamardashvili arriving: “[Alisson] has great competition with Kelleher, so if that is what drives him then it helps. But Ali is just a top professional and they know what it means to wear this shirt. You always know if you are a player here; if you don’t do well, someone else will do the job. Jaros is talented as well, so goalkeeper-wise we are in a good place.”
Fans needed against Southampton: “It’s difficult to measure the emotional toll of games but you feel it and take it into account, you can only look at the data, they run as much as other games but they runs they have had to make are more from a negative mindset than when you have the ball yourself.
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“So we take that into account and three or four months without a break… of course, I was happy with the goal we scored — it gives us a good advantage — but mentally it helps as well. Three finals to be played this week, so a week to look forward to for all the fans. I hope, I truly hope, the fans will be at their loudest tomorrow, not in the final or PSG but tomorrow.
“I have to convince my players we play three finals and I hope that I influence our fans a bit too, they cannot come in five mins before kick-off, I hope it is filled half an hour before kick-off and the players get their reward for their performance. I see their creative songs, let’s hear them tomorrow! I am in the crowd tomorrow…”
Cody Gakpo injury latest: “He didn’t train yesterday yet. Let’s see if he can train today. A close call. It’s not a long-term injury but he had some pain yesterday. Let’s see where he is today.”
Southampton threat: “We have to act differently than the second half against Wolves but it was also their quality too. They have had a better season than the table. Southampton take risks all over the pitch, so if you are not sharp or aren’t aggressive enough, they can hurt you. Wolves had nothing to lose in the second half and it’s hard to play through it. If you did it once or twice in the right way, you can create something. We saw this against PSG.”
Have Liverpool been lucky with injuries? “If you think injuries are only a part of luck or bad luck then we have been lucky. But we believe in the fact that we have tried to prevent them in a certain way of working.
“That we don’t have many injuries, I don’t see that as luck. I see that first of all as our players are professionals and try to stay fit, and also great facilities and staff. You have to see this over a long period of time to see if this is good luck.
“If we can continue doing this for years without many big injuries then it is probably also quality — although you can’t go through a season in the Premier League, in the Champions League, and all the cups we play in this country, without injuries.
“Diogo Jota has been out for three or four months without a start, Alisson Becker was out for weeks or maybe even months, Trent has been out, Conor Bradley… Joe Gomez is out now for months. So we also have our injuries. It is more the amount of injuries you hopefully try to prevent. It could be luck but I hope that we do things in the right way so it is not only luck.”
