Slot delighted as Liverpool secure champions league knock out spot after 1-0 Girona win

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Slot delighted as Liverpool secure champions league knock out spot after 1-0 Girona win  10/12/2024   Estadi Montilivi, Girona, Spain

Transcript

00:00This way.

00:07Evening.

00:09First question.

00:13Richard.

00:15Hi, Jürgen. Congratulations, six wins out of six in Europe so far,

00:21and the job almost automatically to the top eight.

00:25How pleased are you with how it's gone so far for the Champions League?

00:30If you ask me about all the six games, I'm really pleased with all the results.

00:35I'm really pleased with the five games, the way we played.

00:38I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight.

00:44What are you not so pleased about?

00:48A lot, but especially two things.

00:52If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football,

00:57knows how to bring the ball out from the back,

01:00like some other teams we faced recently like City or Real Madrid,

01:03then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them.

01:07But if you're every time waiting a few seconds before you press,

01:11and if you do press you are so easily outplayed,

01:14then this team can cause you a lot of problems,

01:16and that's what they showed during the whole Champions League campaign,

01:19except for PSV Eindhoven, in a way.

01:22So I almost feel sorry for them,

01:24because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign

01:27than the three points they have until now.

01:29But, yeah, we have an incredible goalkeeper.

01:32The other part was that every time we lost the ball we were not aggressive enough,

01:36so every time we lost the ball they could almost every time go all the way to our goal,

01:41having a shot or a blocked shot, and then we could attack again.

01:45So, hardly any control at all over the game.

01:48Maybe the second half was a bit better,

01:51but, yeah, I'm trying to be positive.

02:14Maybe the first five or ten minutes they went on a counter-attack one or two times still,

02:21yeah, like so many times this season,

02:25if a team plays us they do something different than they do all the other games.

02:30We might see this as a compliment for what we've done until now

02:35and the quality of our players,

02:37but, yeah, they played without denying, a bit similar to Leverkusen,

02:41so it wasn't always easy for us to press them well,

02:47but I don't think it had that much to do with tactics,

02:50because if it's only tactics in terms of how you have to defend,

02:53then it's when they have the ball, when they bring the ball out from the back.

02:56But if we lose the ball and they could also go all the way to our goal,

02:59that tells me that in general we were by far not aggressive enough without the ball.

03:05And maybe the goal helped us most, that we scored the goal from a penalty.

03:17Just on Daryl Noonan, a couple of missed chances in the first half,

03:22he seems a bit low on confidence, do you agree?

03:26What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances,

03:30then it's always the question, does this have anything to do with low of confidence,

03:33or is this a situation where he's in at the moment?

03:35I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in,

03:42and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you're not able to score.

03:47The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us.

03:50Today Mo again, but I would have loved to see Darwin score,

03:54because I think every striker who wants to score needs goals.

03:57That's why I kept him in for quite a long time.

04:00He was a threat, but unfortunately he couldn't score,

04:04because, yes, Alisson made a lot of saves,

04:07but I think if you make a highlight of this game

04:10we will see a few chances that we had as well,

04:13which is something normal.

04:16What is not normal is that we concede so many chances.

04:19Jordi Piquet from El Diario del País.

04:22I wanted to ask you if you think that Girona is a great team,

04:26but that they lose strength in the areas, especially in the rivals' area.

04:33Losing strength?

04:35That they lose strength or that they become weaker in the rivals' area.

04:41I don't know, I can only be positive about Girona.

04:44I have so, so, so much respect for them.

04:47Last year they were an incredible team to watch,

04:50they had so many quality players.

04:52Now, after the game, I can maybe be a bit more honest,

04:55because you don't say this before the game,

04:57but they lost a lot of quality players.

04:59They lost a lot of quality players,

05:01and I think that's something that we need to look at.

05:04I think that's something that we need to look at.

05:07And if you can still play like this,

05:09that is a big, big compliment for their manager,

05:12that he's able, in every Champions League game,

05:15to play his own style,

05:17to make it so difficult for PSG,

05:19difficult for Liverpool, difficult for Feyenoord.

05:22Those were the three games I watched most.

05:25And all because they have such a good idea

05:27about how they want to bring the ball out from the back.

05:30So, I would...

05:33If you give this manager the same quality players as he had last season,

05:37he will do exactly the same again,

05:39and top three, top five in this league.

05:43But unfortunately for them, it's mostly like this,

05:47they lose a bit of quality.

05:49Still good players, they still have good players,

05:51but not exactly the same quality as they had last season.

05:56Well done. Finish. Last one.

05:58Richard.

06:25When you go back to Alisson,

06:27you said all along that Alisson needs some time to get on with you,

06:31but I know you said he made some big saves,

06:33but just to build on that, he really showed tonight,

06:36why after two months he didn't look like he'd been away.

06:40No, no, no, he definitely didn't.

06:43Yeah, I set out a bit of a joke

06:45that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he really was,

06:49to give him so much work,

06:51but of course that was not our plan.

06:53But he showed again today why I said so many times

06:56that he's our first goalkeeper,

06:58that has nothing to do with grief, he did so, so well.

07:01But Alisson has been so important for this club for so many years,

07:06for his country as well,

07:08and showed today that he's probably one of the best,

07:11in my opinion, the best goalkeeper in the world.

07:13And let's hope he can continue bringing these performances in,

07:16let's even hope more that he can stay fit.

07:19Thank you, everyone.

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