Arne Slot previews Liverpool's cup trip to Brighton

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Arne Slot previews Liverpool's cup trip to Brighton  29/120/2024  Axa training centre, Liverpool, UK

Transcript

00:00It's a bit cold today, even inside.

00:11Arnaut, before we talk about Liverpool,

00:13can I just get your thoughts on Erik ten Maag obviously leaving his position

00:16as Manchester United manager and Ruben de Stroot taking Inter in charge?

00:20Yeah, you can, of course. He's a Dutch manager,

00:25so that makes it even harder for me, for us, as Dutch people.

00:30Always your first thoughts are with the person.

00:34We are all in this job, so we know it can happen,

00:37but if it happens, especially because I know him a little bit

00:41and I know how much work he puts into it,

00:44then to get this news for him is of course a pity.

00:52But we also know, especially us coming from Holland,

00:55how well he did at Ajax and that he won two trophies over here,

00:58so we will see him, I think in the near future, somewhere at a big club again.

01:03But at this moment it's for him and his family.

01:06It's of course, tragedies may be a bit too much to say, but it's a big disappointment.

01:12And for your squad at the moment, Jota, Chiesa, Conor Brightley,

01:15are they likely to figure how far away are they from a return?

01:19The ones you just mentioned, Conor is training with us again,

01:23so he could maybe be in the squad tomorrow.

01:26Jota not, Alisson not, Javi Elliott not,

01:30and Federico, I'm not expecting him to be in the squad tomorrow as well.

01:34How long do you think Federico...

01:36That's always difficult to say, because he goes a bit up and down,

01:40so sometimes he's there with us, trains a few days,

01:42and then he goes out for an injury again.

01:46So I don't want to put days or weeks on it,

01:52because I think we just have to make sure he gets in the best possible shape,

01:57and don't put any pressure on him by coming up with dates.

02:02Just looking at this competition, the game you've already played,

02:05obviously the starting line-up from the win over Bournemouth,

02:08only Kelleher and Nunes then started the Cup win over West Ham,

02:11and then from the West Ham game on, Jota started the league win over Wolves,

02:15so how likely are you to do something similar with regards to team selection this week,

02:20bearing in mind it's also a double-header against Bayern?

02:22Yeah, I don't think it's possible to do the same as we did against West Ham,

02:26for the simple reason that we got some injuries,

02:29so we don't have maybe enough players to change them all, if I wanted that.

02:35We've played on Sunday against Arsenal,

02:38yesterday there was mostly recovery for everyone,

02:41so today when we come in, and we have to come in as we speak,

02:46we will find out how they all are, and then we have to make a decision who's going to start.

02:50But I think if you look at our schedule and the amount of times

02:54that we have less days to recover compared to our opponent,

02:58that's not on Saturday, because we play Brighton tomorrow,

03:03but Brighton played Saturday, and with Liverpool it's the same,

03:07they play Friday, we play Saturday,

03:09so it might be a moment for us to also see some other players,

03:12but like I said, first we have to know how fit everybody is.

03:20Can I just ask as well, this starts, I think it's five games in around 11 days,

03:26how do you prepare for that, and does that mean you have to select games that have more prominence?

03:32No, I think always the next game is the most important,

03:36so you try to pick a team that is best capable of winning that game,

03:42and sometimes that means because they've played so many games,

03:45you change one or two or a few more players.

03:49How to prepare them for that is not what you do today or tomorrow,

03:52that's mostly what you've done already in pre-season,

03:55and all the weeks leading up to this schedule,

03:58those are the weeks you try to prepare them for,

04:01and you do this by training sessions, of course.

04:06Jürgen, I know Marco came off the bench and started the previous round in this competition,

04:11is this a chance for him to maybe start, and also when you're making these changes,

04:15how do you keep those players that are maybe struggling for minutes happy in the squad?

04:20The last thing is not always easy, because they all want to play,

04:24and it would be strange for me if they are all happy if they don't play,

04:28but they are professionals, they know that these things can happen,

04:32and they also see that the players that play in their position do really well,

04:36mostly with Wata, but it's also with Joe Gomez and Gerard Kwanzaa,

04:40that are in competition with Ryan, with Ibu and with Virgil.

04:44So they understand and they see how well these players play,

04:47and that they also stay fit until the last minute of the game.

04:52But I think Wata is one of the players that might be in the line-up,

04:56because the season is going to be so long and we will need him during the season,

05:02and therefore he needs once in a while playing time as well.

05:06Fortunately he has this playing time with the national team,

05:09but it helps if he once in a while gets a game with us again,

05:12and I really liked him against West Ham.

05:15And what I admire about him, or what I respect about him,

05:18is his personality, because two times he had to come in five minutes before the end,

05:23and in my managerial career I sometimes have seen that players,

05:26if they come in five minutes before the end,

05:28they come in with a face like this and play like that,

05:32but every time when we need him, even if it's for five minutes,

05:35he shows up for the team, for his team-mates and for himself.

05:40So I think also for that reason he deserves to play tomorrow.

05:48Hi, Arne. You mentioned after the Aston match your admiration for Darwin Nunes

05:53and his ability to come in and play three games

05:55after not having played a lot and to play with such energy and aggression.

05:59You also kind of mentioned he was the only recognised striker available,

06:03so with that in mind I was wondering about some of the other options.

06:07We saw Kylian Mbappe play 15 minutes at the end of the game against Leipzig,

06:11but he seems to have been more rejuvenated in his old left-wing role.

06:15We've also seen Luis Pizarro and Mo Salah play essentially during their Liverpool career.

06:19I noticed Jake Dance was walking into the building earlier today,

06:22I wonder whether or not he's coming to play if he's training for the first team this year?

06:27You could become the manager over here!

06:29LAUGHTER

06:31Do we have any other option to play as a nine as well?

06:34Because you're giving me a lot already.

06:36I mean, I'm not offering my own side to play.

06:38OK, I don't know if that's smart.

06:42No, I think about Darwin, I gave him credit for the fact that he worked so hard in previous weeks

06:52where he didn't play a lot, to be able to play three times in a row in, I think, three games in eight days,

06:58so that says a lot about him.

07:00But it also says a lot about the quality of our performance staff and medical staff,

07:04that we were able to give him the right sessions, to prepare him in the right way.

07:10But you always need the player to buy in, because you can give him the right sessions,

07:13but if he doesn't give everything then it's very difficult for him to do what he did.

07:18Also, with him, it was a good thing that his ban for the Uruguay team was cancelled,

07:27so he could play their two games, that helped probably as well for him to play the way he did,

07:32and I'm not talking about the quality he played with, but the intensity he played with.

07:36And the quality was also good.

07:38So there was a positive thing.

07:40Yeah, it is a pity that Djoko Djota is not available and Federico Chiesa is also not available,

07:46because they were, in my opinion, the most logical No. 9s, maybe not in yours!

07:50But still, we have some other options with the ones you just said.

07:59Do you expect Djoko to be back before the November international break?

08:03No.

08:05Yeah.

08:07Yeah.

08:09And Eddie Desai?

08:11Eddie Desai, yeah.

08:13Just from the PA, there were some reports from Italy last week

08:18saying that you might try and get him on loan in January, is that true?

08:24That hasn't gone through my mind at all.

08:27I think the first and foremost is that he gets fit again,

08:31and then we can see where he is, and I think there were also reports in Italy.

08:37What I meant about him was that he missed pre-season,

08:40and in pre-season he was on low-intensity sessions,

08:44because he had to train with three or four players apart from the group.

08:48So that is what I said, and then going from there to a high-intensity league,

08:56to a high-intensity playing style, is difficult in general for every player,

09:02but especially if you had a pre-season like this.

09:05We knew this before, so we knew we had to be really careful

09:08and adjust where we could to his individual needs.

09:13But it hasn't been perfect yet, so we are trying to find the right way of building him up,

09:18without overloading him, and that has been difficult till now,

09:22but I have full confidence that that will happen.

09:25Let him first be fit.

09:36It's something that also goes through my head, and I haven't made that decision yet,

09:40so we will see tomorrow.

09:43It's also a decision you take, you include your goalkeeper coach with that,

09:47but in the end I have to make that decision,

09:50and I also want to hear how fit Kweef is at the moment, he played many games.

09:55So let's wait and see what decision I make tomorrow.

10:06Do you trust the club's progress?

10:09I assume the club follows this progress very detailedly,

10:13because I know how professional this club is.

10:16If you ask me, I'm in a programme from game, press conference,

10:21sometimes have some time to train with the boys as well!

10:25So I wasn't able to see his game during the weekend,

10:29but it's good to hear he made some good saves.

10:32It's nice to hear that, because we knew we brought a very good goalkeeper with him.

10:41Can I ask what the main threats from Brighton will be tomorrow?

10:46A very good idea about football for many years already,

10:51so I like their playing style a lot with their former manager already,

10:55and with this one as well.

10:59What makes the club Brighton, in my opinion, special

11:03is that maybe not the most money in the league when they buy the players,

11:07but they always find the right ones.

11:10So there's a lot of quality, although also for them the transfer fees go up a bit,

11:16but they are not spending 100 million on the players,

11:19so they always find the right ones.

11:22So many quality players to pick, and a very good playing style.

11:28Jürgen, obviously the club has a chance to use your players sometimes,

11:33you obviously used a lot of them in the summer to get game time,

11:38but when you do get injuries and you look at the squad,

11:41is that a difficult balance to try and know how many to let go and how many to keep around the building?

11:46Yeah, that is sometimes difficult, because in certain situations you would prefer to keep them here,

11:52because then they can train every day with you

11:55and you can implement your playing style in the best possible way.

11:59But if that also means that they hardly play,

12:03that will normally also lead not to the progression you are hoping for.

12:07So that is the balance we always try to find with our players,

12:11also with our very talented ones, and sometimes that means you bring them on alone.

12:15Stefan Beicet was a very good example of that.

12:18Then you hope to see that he plays a lot, and he already played a few games.

12:24And then it's very pleasing in this particular situation

12:27that he went to a very good manager as well, with Pepijn Luynders,

12:31that knows this club also.

12:34And for Ben Doak it's similar, he also went to a very good manager and a very good playing style.

12:40So it's a balance we need to find.

12:42Do we want to play them on a regular basis or once in a while and keep with us?

12:47And we have to be aware of our own interests so we can't let everybody go

12:52that doesn't play all the time.

12:54And Tyler Morton is a good example of that,

12:57which is a quality, quality player.

13:00Good enough to play everywhere around the league,

13:03but he's in competition with so many good midfielders over here.

13:07Like you see now, we've got six forwards, two of them are injured, so only four left.

13:12And with the schedule we have, that's sometimes a bit of a worry for me.

13:16So maybe we should bring Ben Doak back.

13:20You're welcome.

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