Arne Slot excited by Leverkusen champions League visit to Anfield

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Arne Slot excited by Leverkusen champions League visit to Anfield  04/11/2024  Anfield, Liverpool, Uk

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00:00Jürgen, do you want to go first?

00:12Arne, 100 per cent record in the Champions League,

00:16Leverkusen are unbeaten themselves in the Champions League this season,

00:19Xabi Alonso obviously has got a big history with this place as well,

00:22it feels like it's got all the makings of a really big European tie,

00:25how do you see it?

00:27Like you see it, it is a big European tie,

00:31which is almost always the situation if you play in the Champions League,

00:34even in a new format.

00:36Although there might be maybe one or two or three teams

00:39that are not as known as all the other teams that are in the competition.

00:45But definitely for all the reasons you say,

00:47maybe mainly also because of what Xabi Alonso did for this club,

00:50especially in Europe as well.

00:54But maybe more because of how he manages Leverkusen,

01:01how strong they are domestically,

01:04as in Europe last season they were incredible of course,

01:07this season in my opinion they are still the same, just as good,

01:10but a bit more unlucky when it comes to results.

01:14So a game to look forward to for many people who love this game.

01:19Obviously we were worried when we saw Kanate go off at the weekend,

01:22but he trained today, how is he and is he likely to play?

01:26Yeah, he's available to play, and I think also completely recovered,

01:32so there's no issue for him not to play because of what he had.

01:36Then it's up to me to make the decision if he plays or not,

01:40but he's in a good place.

01:43The other issue after Saturday's game was something that Mo put out on social media.

01:47He did obviously celebrate the win and the fact that the club is back at the top of the Premier League,

01:51but he also finished by saying,

01:53no matter what happens I will never forget what scoring at Anfield feels like.

01:57Now, one thing you could read into that is that it's a hint about his future

02:01and where his contract talks are going,

02:03so we've not had the opportunity to speak to Mo, have you?

02:07And what insight can you give us as to his message behind that?

02:11Yeah, so that was a long question.

02:16You interpreted it in a way maybe other people don't.

02:21I don't look at the Instagram posts of my players, I only talk to them,

02:26which you can't, so that is the advantage I have,

02:30as long as Tony keeps hiding them and you can't talk to them.

02:37Mo is in a very good place at the moment,

02:40here at Liverpool he's been in a very good place, but this season again as well.

02:45So I'm hoping he can post... Was it a post you said?

02:49It was a post, a social media post.

02:51I'm hoping that he will post one after tomorrow and on Saturday again,

02:55and what he says with that is for me not important,

02:58the only thing that is important for me is how he plays

03:01and what he tells me when we have conversations,

03:04and that's what matters and not how you guys interpret one of his posts.

03:10Just to push you a little bit further,

03:12do you feel it is a reference to his future being away from Liverpool after the season,

03:16or can you say to us that it's not a reference to that?

03:20Then I should have spoken to him about what he said,

03:23if that was a reference, yes or no.

03:25But I haven't spoken about him, we've spoken about Liverpool,

03:28because that team deserves all of our attention for the quality they are.

03:36So, no, I think he's out of contract at the end of the season,

03:40and Virgil said something in the press,

03:42and now he has a post which you interpreted in a certain way.

03:45This will probably continue for as long as their future is not clear yet,

03:50but in the meantime let's hope that they bring in performances like Mo had

03:55and Virgil had as well during the weekend.

03:59Anyone next?

04:02Oh, he gets some help.

04:06We know Leverkusen are an outstanding team in position,

04:10and this has led to some teams this season, like Leipzig,

04:14playing more man-for-man out of position against them,

04:17a lot like Atalanta did in last season's Europa League final very successfully.

04:21How important will your out-of-position play be tomorrow?

04:26Very important, because football is played in two moments,

04:31either you have the ball or you don't.

04:33And if you play against strong teams, which Leverkusen is one of them,

04:38Liverpool as well, you need to be good in both sides.

04:43Unfortunately, we were poor in the first half on both ends,

04:47we were poor with the ball, we were not as good with the ball,

04:50and we were quite poor without the ball against Brighton,

04:53a team that can play out from the back really good as well.

04:56So that shows us that we need a performance like the second half,

05:00because Leverkusen, in my opinion, before we play them,

05:05is at least equal to Brighton when they have the ball.

05:10So we need a much better performance than the first half,

05:14and we need equal performance like the second half.

05:19Hi, Arno. My question follows on from that.

05:22You mentioned post-match that you wanted Liverpool

05:24to start with the same intensity in the first half

05:27that they did in the second, and get the crowd energised.

05:29But we've noticed in recent games that some teams

05:32have maybe taken advantage of the more aggressive press,

05:35like leaving players out-wired in between the wide forwards

05:38and the full-backs to utilise the space.

05:41How important is it to strike a balance between maybe what the crowd want

05:44and then maybe what the opposition don't want,

05:46particularly in a team like Leverkusen,

05:48who have such great wing-backs like Romaldo and Frimpong?

05:51Yeah, but they have more than only great wing-backs.

05:54They have 11 very good players on the pitch.

05:57I think what the crowd wants is what I want and what our players want.

06:01We want to have control of the game,

06:03we want to be very aggressive without the ball.

06:07Maybe if we are not as aggressive, then we are sometimes a bit too high.

06:13We still want to try, but if you are just too late or a fraction too late

06:17or you open a certain lane, then they can play through you.

06:20The good thing is that I always see my players running back really hard

06:24to prevent the other team from getting a chance,

06:27because although I felt, and I think we all felt this,

06:30that Brighton was the better team in the first half,

06:33it wasn't like they had three or four chances from open play.

06:38I think if you look back at it,

06:40we got the biggest chance maybe in the first half with Dalvin Nunez.

06:46So that also shows me that even if they play through our first press,

06:49we are still able not to concede that many chances.

06:52But ideally, it's not only preventing them from playing through your press,

06:56but by having a very good press you can also create your chances.

06:59It's probably something you know really well here at Liverpool.

07:03So that is also the reason why we weren't pressed that high.

07:07Against good teams like Chelsea, like Brighton and like Liverpool,

07:13you cannot have 1 per cent less than, for example, the second-half intensity we had.

07:28Just to go back to Mo for a couple of seconds,

07:31he was obviously 32 and now will be 33 before the start of next season,

07:34but given the dedication and the professionalism you see from him,

07:38how much longer do you think he can continue at the level he's at at the moment?

07:43There's no reason at the moment to think that he is dropping in terms of level.

07:48That's not what you look at his numbers,

07:50and that's also not what you see when you see him play.

07:53I don't know how to say this in English,

07:58but I cannot tell you what the future will look like.

08:02For some players they can, Cristiano Ronaldo,

08:04but what is he at the moment?

08:06He's still doing really well, Messi is still incredible.

08:11But there were also players like me that weren't as good anymore when they were 33.

08:18Not that I was so good when I was 26,

08:21but I regressed a bit earlier than Ronaldo and Messi.

08:25So, yeah, I don't know what the future will bring,

08:28but what I do know is that Mo is in a very good place at the moment.

08:37Hi, Arne. You talked about Xabi Alonso before.

08:41As a coach yourself, what is it that makes him so special as a manager?

08:47That's difficult to say if you don't work with him on a daily basis,

08:51that he is special, that's clear.

08:53If you go to a club that was bottom of the league

08:56and with the same players you bring them all the way up,

08:59and without spending that much money in that summer,

09:03only bringing one or two very good players,

09:06and he had a season where I think they only lost the final of the Europa League.

09:11So it tells you that he's special.

09:13What it is that makes him special is difficult for me to say,

09:17because I haven't faced him yet and I haven't worked with him,

09:21but what might be the situation is that he's worked with very good managers in the past,

09:27he was a player with incredible insight into the game,

09:31when to be where, and he played at the highest levels,

09:34so he also probably knows and understands how these players feel in certain moments.

09:39So that probably all contributes to why he is such a good manager,

09:44but what makes him exactly so special,

09:47the best way to find that out is to talk to the players he worked with,

09:50and I haven't done that yet.

10:07Arne, I asked Queen before about the new Champions League format,

10:10where it was the group stage, now it's the random draw.

10:13How are you finding it as a manager compared to the group stage?

10:16Is it more work? Are you playing different teams each game now rather than the sec group?

10:23Yeah, that is obviously different.

10:27Normally you play away or a home leg and then you can prepare even better

10:31for the second time you play against them.

10:34Now, every time you play against a new opponent,

10:37that's in some situations because every pod has some very strong teams

10:42and some pods have maybe not the same strength.

10:45So you can be a bit lucky with the draw, you can be a bit unlucky,

10:48and then it has to do with which teams you face at home

10:52and which ones you face away from home.

10:55So the first thing I would say is maybe it comes a bit more luck

11:01into ending up high or low.

11:03On the other hand, if you play eight games instead of six,

11:06normally when you play more games luck ends up somewhere in the middle.

11:13And what I always said until now,

11:15ask me after eight games or after this season,

11:19it's a better way to judge this format than at the moment.

11:22The only thing I like as a person that loves football

11:27is that on every evening I can switch to a game that is really a nice one to watch.

11:34But that's not where I'm here for at the moment.

11:38But on Wednesday evening I will definitely find a game that I'm looking forward to.

11:44And hopefully the people look forward to Liverpool, Liverpool and tomorrow.

11:48And we don't let them down.

11:52Well done.

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