Slot annoyed after Liverpool's difficult 3-2 Southampton win to go eight points clear

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Slot annoyed after Liverpool's difficult 3-2 Southampton win to go eight points clear  24/11/2024  St Mary's Stadium, Southampton, UK

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00:00First one, anyone?

00:03Arne, it must be over the moon with that.

00:06Over the moon is a bit exaggerated, but of course we're really happy,

00:11especially because after an hour we were 2-1 down.

00:15Maybe that wasn't a reflection of how the first hour went,

00:22because I think we dominated the whole game, which is not that easy.

00:27Maybe you think, ah, he played at number 20, this is what we expect,

00:30but I've seen many games of Southampton where they were dominating the game.

00:35But in the end, if you're 2-1 down after an hour,

00:39you are maybe over the moon, if you win it we're free to.

00:45Any more?

00:46I mean, obviously he's a big player, big moments in the league.

00:51Yeah, we always know we can trust him if things are difficult for us.

00:57Because after we went 2-1 down, I didn't really feel that was the moment we should score,

01:04and then out of a fantastic pass from Ryan Gravenberg,

01:08but the timing of the run and the way Mo finished it was special,

01:13and I think that helped us really back into the game.

01:15Of course, it's normal if you score a 2-2, it helps you back in the game,

01:18but we needed that goal maybe to play the last 25 minutes that we played,

01:22because for me then it was a matter of time before we scored a goal.

01:27In the first hour we dominated possession without really creating that much,

01:32in the last 25 minutes we were dominating with creating some chances.

01:39Southampton started poor on the match-week for the first time,

01:42and obviously he has a big presence and a few other changes,

01:45Flynn Downs coming into defence, did that surprise you,

01:47and did you have to adapt to their changes?

01:50No, I think what I do as a manager is I want to know their style of play,

01:55and sometimes it makes a bit of a difference if a number 9 is high and tall or fast or slow,

02:01so it makes a bit of a difference, but I don't think they've changed their playing style.

02:05Not in the way they lined up, 5-0-1, and also not in the way they like to play,

02:11because the first goal we scored was from them trying to bring the ball out from the back,

02:16which didn't happen a lot for them today, and that did happen a lot in other games,

02:23because I showed the players yesterday how many times Southampton can play through a press.

02:28But today I think that part of our game was quite good,

02:30that we were really aggressive without the ball.

02:33Was that harder work than you wanted it to be, ahead of a busy game in Madrid?

02:39It's very hard for English teams to do well in Europe,

02:41because there's no team in the Premier League that doesn't cause a problem.

02:45Yeah, that is the difference.

02:48I agree with you that this league asks a lot from every player every weekend,

02:53and if you then play in Europe, that's not always easy.

02:56Only a few teams in England have shown that they can do this,

02:58and Liverpool have shown it in the past for many seasons,

03:01the last two years it has been more difficult.

03:05But yeah, that's also why teams in England have such a big squad,

03:09because we top clubs have quite a lot of money.

03:15We can also make a bigger squad than maybe some other teams in other countries.

03:20And that's also what we need, you saw it today again,

03:23the three players that came in really had an impact on the game,

03:26and that is also what we need in this league.

03:30Jürgen, eight points clear, and only twice in Premier League history

03:36has a club that has won ten of its first 12 games not gone on to win the title.

03:41What do you do to temper the expectation that it's now a cakewalk for you?

03:46Because I know it's early days, but it's a very healthy advantage after only 12 games.

03:52No, definitely, but we also know what we have to put into it

03:55to get this lead that we have at the moment and to get these wins.

03:59And I only have to show in the players' field that,

04:01I think there were maybe one or two games for us that were wins by a big margin,

04:06but the rest of them were all by small margins.

04:09So we know how difficult it is to win a game,

04:12and these players have been longer in the Premier League than I have been,

04:17but I think it was last season, even later on in the season,

04:22that Arsenal led by eight points and City came back.

04:25So you know if you face Arsenal, City, Chelsea and all these other teams,

04:30Tottenham was great yesterday as well,

04:32they are all able to win so many games in a row.

04:35So it's nice to have this position,

04:37but we are definitely not getting carried away.

04:40You've been very complimentary about Southampton,

04:42I was just wondering if you've spoken to manager Russell Martin at all today?

04:45Not more than I speak to every other manager,

04:47so you shake hands before the game, after the game.

04:49What was a bit unlucky for them, I think, is normally they play, in my opinion,

04:58even much better, and they create much more chances and hardly score.

05:02Today they only created two chances,

05:03which the first one wasn't even a chance and scored two.

05:06If we could have done this the opposite way, then they would have had more points.

05:09Because in other games they played through the press of our team so, so many times,

05:14but then they were not effective enough, is that the word you use?

05:18But today they were really effective, because I think they arrived two times,

05:22with the first one not even being a chance maybe,

05:25and the second one from our set-piece.

05:27So if they can combine these two things,

05:30the style of play they have for all the other games,

05:32combined with the effectiveness they had today,

05:35then I'm sure they will bring in a lot of points in the future.

05:39Can we just check, do you have any complaints about the penalty that was given for you?

05:44And certainly none about the one that was given for you,

05:47but the one that was given against you in the first half, it looked very, very tight.

05:51What was your feeling of it?

05:54In general, sometimes you can also have a bit of,

05:58wow, could have made a different decision or not,

06:01but for me with the offside and deciding if a ball is inside or outside,

06:05that is just black or white.

06:08And it was a foul, that was clear.

06:11So if they saw that it was inside, then it's a penalty.

06:15So sometimes with a knock, yes or no, or a red card, yes or no,

06:19there was also an incident in the first half where you could argue

06:23if that's a red card, yes or no.

06:24Those things you can argue, but offside and inside or outside,

06:2918-yard box is something you cannot argue, but it was a small margin.

06:35Like the whole season of us.

06:37Thank you, Arno, thank you very much.

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