Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has addressed the media ahead of Sunday’s game against Chelsea. Yet the upcoming match was something of an afterthought in a wide-ranging press conference following the Reds’ successful pursuit of the title.
Slot did preview the upcoming opponent, noting its strength in depth after Enzo Maresca rotated heavily in the Conference League semi-final. But reporters were naturally keen to hear more on other topics, including what the remainder of the season will now look like for Liverpool, and plans for the summer ahead.
As usual, Slot gave short shrift to a question on Trent Alexander-Arnold’s future. But he was a little more verbose on Harvey Elliott and Federico Chiesa, while also sharing a message he received from Jurgen Klopp.
Here’s everything the Liverpool boss said on a number of key topics. We’ll start with his telling response to a question about Elliott.
On Harvey Elliott’s future
Slot was presented with recent comments from Elliott, who has expressed his wish to stay and fight for a place at Liverpool despite a testing season. He was asked if he sees the midfielder as a big part of Liverpool’s future.
“I think first of all it’s very important that players who are here with us want to stay,” began Slot. “That’s a big compliment to everyone working here.
“Harvey is one of the players that hasn’t had as much playing time as he maybe deserves. But like some others he’s in competition with so many good players, so mainly I’ve chosen other players.
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“Also partly because he was injured for a long time. I’ve been honest with him: the first part after he came back from his injury, he wasn’t the same as he was before his injury.
“But the last few months, he’s back to his old level again. There was no need for me to start with different players, but I think if you look at the amount of minutes he had in the last one or two months and the time before, you can see it goes up already.
“So that tells you we like, I like him more now than I did when he came back from his injury in the first months.”
On Federico Chiesa’s prospects
Slot admitted he is likely to rotate a little between now and the end of the campaign. He was asked if Elliott and Chiesa might have a point to prove.
“I don’t think they have anything to prove to me, becuase I see them every single day on the training ground, and I’ve seen them playing for us in the past or this season — Federico not in the past, but he has had a great career at other clubs as well,” Slot explained. “So I don’t think these players have to prove the quality players they are.
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“I think they want to prove for themselves that they are good enough to play for us, and I already know that they are, and probably they themselves know this as well. So no, I don’t think they have a point to prove, but I do think they would like to play.
“But as I said, it’s not now that all the ones who have played all the games are not going to play anymore, and all the others are going to play now. I did this once before, Plymouth away, and I got quite a lot of criticism from you, didn’t I!”
On Trent Alexander-Arnold
This will be a nice, short section. Slot wasted no time in shutting down a question about Alexander-Arnold, expressing visible relief that this particular saga will be over soon.
“Four weeks to go!” Slot remarked when asked for an update on Alexander-Arnold’s future. He faces three more pre-match press conferences after this one, where the full-back is likely to be mentioned every time.
“If there’s any news on that, I wouldn’t say you will be the first one to know, but the people in front of me will probably hear it all together. As long as there’s no news from us, this is not the place to talk about his situation.”
On texts from Jurgen Klopp
Immediately after the title win, Slot was asked if he had received any messages from Klopp. The Liverpool boss had not yet checked his phone, but admitted he was “100 per cent” sure that his predecessor would have been in touch.
Now, Slot has had a chance to wade through the congratulations from various well-wishers. Sure enough, Klopp was among them.
“I assume it’s Jurgen,” Slot said when asked to name the most famous person who had messaged him.
“What did he have to say? What most of them said, congratulations, now you know how special a club it is, now you are a part of history as well, these kinds of things.
“He was really happy for me, for the players, for the staff, for the fans, like we all know Jurgen. I’ve got a few, but I think he was the most famous one.”
(Image: PA)
On Liverpool fans and transfer plans
Slot was full of praise for how Liverpool fans celebrated the title triumph. He said that it would serve as a message to any potential transfer additions.
“I think the main advantage of winning the Premier League is, until now, if I spoke to new players that I wanted to bring in, I always told them that our fans are really special, that it is special to play at this club,” Slot said. “I think that was not necessary even to tell them in the past, but after Sunday [and the title celebrations] I don’t think I ever have to tell anyone again how special our fans are.
“That was un-believe-able. Not just because of the emotions but also because them not coming on the pitch.
“The amount of times I see teams winning the league and there is a pitch invasion and after two minutes everyone is like “what are we doing here?”. But they stayed in the stands and the celebrations were incredible — not even after the game, but during the game.
“Winning the league, having these fans, I think that is a big attraction to every player we want to bring in and it is definitely helpful.”
