Slot on much changed Liverpool 2-1 cup win at Southampton

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Slot on much changed Liverpool 2-1 cup win at Southampton  18/12/2024  St Mary's stadoium, Southampton, UK

Transcript

00:00How are your seats?

00:04Good. Warm. Warmer than I think down the line.

00:08But hopefully it stays with one time.

00:11Were you nervous in the 93rd, 94th minute when there was the ball over the top?

00:21The moment the ball is over the top you're not nervous,

00:23but the moment you see two players colliding into each other,

00:26is that the word to use? Collide?

00:29Then you always wonder what the decision might be.

00:32In real life I thought, ooh, he could have made a different choice.

00:40But then I saw it back and I felt that he just used his arm.

00:45For me it wasn't a foul.

00:49You never know referee decisions, do you?

00:54You're welcome.

00:59It's a different looking team tonight.

01:02Watson and Harvey's first start of the season.

01:05How impressed were you with these players coming in from the cold?

01:11Harvey already had a good impact in the game during the weekend against Fulham.

01:16So it was good to see that he's able to play 90 for him today and even score a goal.

01:21I started him off on the right, I felt he was a bit...

01:25He got a bit bored so he didn't touch the ball a lot,

01:27so we changed this after 15-20 minutes of playing him in the midfield.

01:31We know he's a better midfielder than he is a winger,

01:34but we had to do it like this.

01:39So that was pleasing to see.

01:43If I have to give someone a big compliment it should be Endo Wata.

01:48Because on a different position, playing such a good game in these circumstances,

01:54that shows you what a quality player he is,

01:57but maybe mainly what kind of mentality and personality he has.

02:02Good to see them both, but I think it was not only them.

02:06You highlighted them, so I answer your question.

02:13How pleased are you with the depth of talent in the academy?

02:20I think this club is known for this.

02:25I heard the fans singing for Trent a song about the Scouser,

02:28I don't know exactly what they sing,

02:30but it probably has to do with him coming from the academy as well.

02:33We have already a few starters from our academy,

02:37and to see these players that train with us on a daily basis,

02:41we know their quality and it's nice to see that they show on Premier League level

02:45that they can easily play at this level.

02:48The thing for them is it's not about easily playing at this level,

02:51you have to compete with Mo, Virgil and all these kind of players,

02:54so it's not enough to be good enough to play at this level,

02:57you have to be good enough to play for Liverpool,

02:59and that is probably even the next step they have to make,

03:03but they've shown today that these players are capable of playing at Premier League level.

03:09What did you make of Federico Chiesa tonight?

03:11It's obviously his first minute since September.

03:14Have you got a timescale on when you might think you'll see the best of him?

03:19I don't know if we saw the same, but I think what I saw is what you can expect.

03:24If a player is out for five or six months, you cannot expect...

03:31I saw ups and downs, I saw some really good moments

03:34and I saw some moments where I felt like, OK, you can do better than this.

03:37For me, that's completely normal if a player has been out for so long

03:40and plays his first game in five, six months probably,

03:44and I already said before that that makes it also so difficult for me

03:48because normally in the pre-season a player gets three, four or five games,

03:52and then he's only out for four or five weeks.

03:55Now he's out for so long, so to get him back to his best level is not easy,

04:02but it was good to see that he showed some quality already today.

04:05But same for him, like for the youngsters, it's not enough to play at this level.

04:10You have to compete with Mo Salah, Cody Kakpo, Lucio, Darwin, Diogo,

04:16but it's good to see that he's back and he also had a few good moments in the game.

04:21How much of a risk is it when you make so many changes?

04:24You left a lot of players back at home,

04:26how much of a risk is it in the quarter-final after all?

04:29Are you concerned about that?

04:31It would be normal if I play with all the regular starters

04:35that we have a better team than we had tonight,

04:37otherwise I make the wrong decision every week.

04:39Which is maybe a possibility, but we also trust these players

04:44because we know how much quality they have.

04:47So that's the first reason to play these players,

04:50that we have a lot of confidence in them as well.

04:52Second of all, it's not about a result on Sunday,

04:55it's more for the long-term fitness of the players that we made the decision

04:59that the ones that played so many minutes to give them a bit of rest during this week,

05:05because the schedule is going to be intense again in the upcoming weeks.

05:10And for the ones that have played a lot, only 45 or 60 minutes,

05:14and the ones that haven't played a lot, play 90.

05:17So that's what we did and it's good for us that it was enough to win it.

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