- 20/12/2024
Liverpool boss Arne Slot on Spurs style, Ange Postecoglu and the title race ahead of their Premier League clash with Tottenham on Sunday
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
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00:00First of all, your reaction to the league cup draw against Tottenham?
00:15Interesting game, but I think every draw would have been interesting,
00:20because I don't know if it's always the situation in England,
00:23but four top teams still in the draw, so there was not an easy one.
00:29And now with Tottenham, especially with us playing them on Sunday,
00:36and I think in half of January we play them again.
00:41So, yeah, interesting draw.
00:45Interesting as well, because a Tottenham-style play,
00:48they tend to seem to go for it and never really put the brakes on it.
00:52Yeah, yeah, I really have to give them credit,
00:58because if I look at Tottenham, and I come from Holland,
01:03but I did watch a lot of matches of the day,
01:05and I think about Gino La, Paul Kerskooi, Glenn Hoddle and recent Modric,
01:11for me Rafael van der Vaart, Gareth Bale,
01:15they've always been a certain brand in football for me,
01:18and a certain identity, and I think Posti Chokhlu gives them that identity back completely.
01:24So it's every time a joy to watch them,
01:27and sometimes results once in a while go against them.
01:31But I think they were one of the teams that beat City, like us.
01:35Not all of them beat them in the manner like we did,
01:38and Tottenham did, because it was completely deserved in these two situations.
01:45They dominated the whole game, we and Tottenham.
01:53Great work that Ainge is doing over there, and I hope this is being seen a bit more.
01:58And I also hope, hope, hope that he wins the trophy.
02:02Not the League Cup, but I'm completely a fan of his team for the Europa League,
02:10because people always talk about trophies, trophies, trophies, that that is so important.
02:15Now, for me his brand of football, his style of football is so much more important,
02:20and if he can combine that with winning something that would be so good for football in general,
02:24then people can stop talking about it as too attacking or whatever.
02:29How on earth can you play too attacking football?
02:32How do you look at the position you're in yourselves at the moment?
02:36Because a few weeks ago we were talking about you having an 8-9 point advantage,
02:40and this weekend Chelsea could feasibly be above you at the table when you kick off on Sunday.
02:45Yeah, I look at it like I've said for three, four, five months.
02:49Just the table after 19 games, because then everybody played the same opponents.
02:54Probably we all had a bit of the same bad luck and a bit of the same luck.
02:59That means Arsenal, for example, had a lot of red cards in the beginning of the season,
03:03that's why they dropped points.
03:05Now we were unfortunate to receive a red card, and we dropped points as well.
03:12We still have Tottenham away,
03:15which were games that I compare now with Arsenal had to play in the beginning of the season.
03:20Chelsea already played there.
03:23So, yeah, don't look at it where you were during the season,
03:28it's about where you are at the end of the season.
03:30But the best other moment to judge the league table is halfway.
03:36I think last night in the game against Manchester United,
03:39as far as we're concerned, we saw the good, the bad and the ugly.
03:43Is it difficult to know what to expect from the players sometimes,
03:46because they can be so inconsistent at times?
03:50They are consistent in their playing style and what they want,
03:54and for me they're sometimes a bit unlucky as well,
03:57because what happened yesterday, yeah, they dominated the game.
04:01They always like to attack, so sometimes he plays with three attackers,
04:09then with two attacking midfielders their full-backs join the attack so much.
04:16For me they were so unlucky, so people say,
04:20why do you bring the ball out from the back? Because they lost the ball.
04:23And the second one, the goalkeeper wanted to kick it away,
04:25which is what everybody wants then, but it's still a goal.
04:28So, four-three, I don't think there are many season ticket holders in the country
04:35that can say they watched so many great games, maybe the ones at Liverpool.
04:41But, yeah, I think it's a privilege to be a season ticket holder at Tottenham.
04:48It's a privilege to be a fan of them at the moment,
04:50because they play such a great style.
04:52And it's not like since Ainge arrived they don't win anything anymore.
04:57Before that they were not a club that won many things,
05:01but what they always won is the sympathy of the fans.
05:04In Europe, maybe also in England, I don't know,
05:07but definitely in Europe because of the style of play they had.
05:10And that is something which he must not underestimate.
05:14If I think about Spurs, I think about the shirt, I think about the playing style,
05:17about their identity, about certain players.
05:20And for me he brought that back completely.
05:25Ansh said in an interview last week that he thinks football management
05:28is the hardest job in the world, even harder than being the Prime Minister.
05:32What do you think of that?
05:36I've said so many positive things now about him and his style,
05:39that if I say another thing it seems like I'm his agent.
05:44But I also like the way he presents himself in the media,
05:48he always finds a different way of saying things.
05:51I heard this remark about him saying that we are judged every weekend
05:55and the Prime Minister has only been judged once every three or four years.
06:00Although in Holland after a year we already have new elections,
06:03so in the last few years.
06:08I think it's right that people talk more about the decisions managers make
06:13than the decisions a Prime Minister makes, that is definitely true.
06:18But it's also true that the decisions the Prime Minister has to make
06:22are a bit more important than the ones we have to make.
06:28At a busy time of the year, how good is it to have somebody like Harvey Elliott
06:32now back, fit and playing, and being able to play in slightly different roles within a game?
06:37How much of a boost is that for you at the moment?
06:40Every time a player comes back from an injury or a player is available
06:43is a boost for us and for the team, because it has shown now many times already
06:48that we need every player.
06:50You saw this in the Fulham game, so you're talking now about Southampton.
06:54I'm talking about the Fulham game, the way Djoko came in, the way Harvey came in,
06:59the impact they had at Darwin, with an assist as well.
07:06In this league, especially if you also play Premier League
07:09and you're still in the League Cup and in the second half of the season we get the FA Cup,
07:13it's also so important to have all your players back, and Harvey is one of them.
07:17And similarly, Chiesa, more minutes for him now.
07:20Is he getting stronger now, closer to where you want him to be?
07:23Yeah, he definitely is, because you see him on the pitch now,
07:27it means he's getting stronger and he's getting better.
07:31He had to adapt for quite a long time.
07:34He's said so many times, as expected, if you miss team training sessions for so long,
07:41and then you go to a league where the intensity is so high as well,
07:44and to a team that plays with a lot of intensity.
07:47But, yeah, he is getting stronger, but he's also facing a lot of competition in the right-wing position.
07:54And you've got some young players as well, like Nicole and Tyler Morton,
07:57who, again, at this time of the year when you're playing a lot of games,
08:01could be very useful for you.
08:03I think that's what made our game against Southampton for this club special,
08:07because we've seen that most of the clubs that were in the quarter-final played with their starters,
08:14only a few played with players that don't always play.
08:19If you then look at United, that was a team that didn't play their starters,
08:22there were still players in the team that cost them 100 million.
08:27With us, if we don't play the starters, you see academy players either on the bench or coming in,
08:34and that is what makes this club, I think, special,
08:37that there is always room for academy players,
08:41and that's not this season, that has been at this club for so long.
08:45If at this club we miss a few players, we take a look at our academy,
08:53and that's part of our identity, you could say.
09:00It feels like your in-game management has really stood out in recent weeks.
09:04Obviously, you have a lot to do with situations you find yourself in in matches,
09:08but are you asking different things, new things from your players?
09:12At the moment that you've been here a while, are they used to your overall methods?
09:17I don't think new things.
09:19I think it's constantly getting them aware of the same things,
09:24and coming back to this every time.
09:28Sometimes you have a lot of attention for our attacking play, final third play or build-up,
09:33and then you feel like we have to work on our defence again,
09:36and then after three or four weeks you feel like,
09:38now it's time to talk about build-up or final third again.
09:42It's just getting the message across as much as we can,
09:45and it's normal, not only with the football players but with my children as well,
09:50if you don't tell them a few things regularly enough, they tend to forget these things.
09:56So that's why this constant repetition is so important for a team.
10:03I don't think we do a lot of new things, maybe small details once,
10:08because football changes, so you have to adapt wherever you can,
10:14and introduce new things, but the main message has always been the same.
10:18And it's about repetition.
10:20How does the team's overall fitness play into that,
10:24at a time when the schedule is so gruelling,
10:27and you're getting so much out of the players often in extremely demanding situations?
10:31I've got about a ten-minute circumstance to make additions or anything like that.
10:36And the question is?
10:38Just whether the nick the team is in at the moment is allowing you to get so much out of them?
10:46Yeah, but I think it's been like this for all the months we've worked together.
10:51We've put a lot of effort in pre-season, although many of them were not there.
10:56We also made the choice to give them, in my opinion, quite a lot of days off.
11:01Maybe that's not the opinion of the players, but they had quite a lot of days off.
11:06And I still feel that we find the benefits of that at this moment,
11:11because I know in Holland some clubs only gave them seven or eight days off,
11:16and a few of these players got injured or, as they say themselves, are very tired at the moment.
11:22Good thing for them as they have a winter break now.
11:25So I think we, and again I have to make compliments for the performance staff,
11:31because I fully trust them on that part, have managed that really well till now.
11:36But still a long way to go, a lot of games to be played.
11:40But if I'm correct, I think it's only two players in red at the moment,
11:44that means only two injuries left, and of course a few of them are coming back from injuries.
11:49But I think we only missed two players on the training ground today, which is a positive thing.
11:54Jürgen?
12:13Yeah, I definitely like this in the player.
12:15I think this is something every player must have if you play at this level.
12:19If you don't have this, you probably don't play at this level.
12:23As long as they understand they need the team to be special as an individual,
12:27as long as they put the team first, and as a result of that be special themselves.
12:32And that is what they all do, including Trent.
12:35But all the top players have this, they want to be special, they want to be the best.
12:40If that's not what you have, I think it's so hard to put the effort in we were just talking about,
12:45to stay fit, to be good every three days.
12:49You always see them during the game and then you probably feel like,
12:52oh, what a life these players have.
12:54And that is true, they have a great life, but they have to put a lot of work in
12:58to be able to be at their best every three days.
13:02And that's not given to everyone, that mentality and that discipline.
13:07And therefore I think that's the mentality of a top player,
13:11and part of that is that you need and want to be the best possible player in your position,
13:17and the best player in the world.
13:20Hi, Arne, you've had goals from your No. 9 position in back-to-back games now,
13:24with Jota against Fulham and then Bale against Southampton.
13:28We saw Luis Diaz play as a No. 9 in Jota's absence, he played really well,
13:32but after that hat-trick against Leverkusen you found goals,
13:35and even shots a little bit harder to come by.
13:38Have you seen enough of him in that position to say that you're going to get more opportunities
13:42to develop as a No. 9, even now that the main two are back and firing?
13:47Yeah, let's start with the positive thing.
13:49I think it was a week ago when people said,
13:51yeah, Dalwin doesn't get his numbers, and one week later he has an assist and a goal.
13:55And then you said, and mostly you're correct,
13:58but then you said, yeah, Jota as a No. 9 scored a goal.
14:02I think he came in as a midfielder, because Dalwin was the No. 9 at that moment,
14:07but he is also a No. 9 for us.
14:11Lucio can play for sure in that position, he's done that very well for us.
14:18I think he's played there a few times, not that many.
14:25I think Girona he played on the left.
14:27So I think after the Leverkusen game he maybe played more games as a winger than as a No. 9.
14:32But he can play there, and we've got more options to play as a No. 9,
14:37like you just said, Dalwin and Djoko as well,
14:40but Lucio is definitely part of that position as well.
14:46Arno, with all the talk recently on the pressure and scrutiny that managers are under,
14:50are you someone who's able to switch off when you're outside of this place?
14:54And if so, what is it you do?
14:57It is true that in certain situations there's a lot of scrutiny,
15:02but once in a while it's also a nice job to have, so it's not only negative.
15:08I experienced this job in the last four or five months,
15:11and I know we've won a lot, as actually only positive,
15:15so I cannot tell you.
15:17Of course there's pressure, but I haven't felt scrutiny.
15:20Maybe there was some scrutiny after the Nottingham Forest game,
15:25but that doesn't always come to you.
15:28If you lose a few more, then you start to feel,
15:31hmm, there might be some negative emotions as well.
15:34So it's not only negative for me, especially 2024,
15:38I only look back at it only as positive.
15:43But, yeah, it's true that because the room is quite filled over here as well,
15:49and there are probably now many, many people at home giving their opinions as well on social media,
15:55it is true that people have a lot of opinion about us,
15:58but sometimes that's also positive, it's not only negative.
16:05These are the two that are still at RAD, so they don't train with us at the moment.
16:09They are on their way back, but they don't train with the team yet.
16:12What do you think is realistic?
16:16That is what I've said before, quite difficult,
16:19because I thought Jota would have been back a bit earlier already,
16:24and sometimes the end stage of rehab takes a bit longer.
16:30Sometimes they join and then they are like,
16:32hmm, I'm not completely ready to start yet, so let's wait and see.
16:37But we have a very good rehab personnel over here
16:42and they've done some good work already with Alisson and a few others.
16:46And the main thing is, if they come back, that they are ready to come back.
16:52We must not focus on one, two or three days,
16:55it's more important for the long-term that they stay fit afterwards.
16:58And this is what, till now, they've done really well,
17:01and hopefully with Conor and Ibu the same thing happens.
17:15Yeah, interesting, because my feeling was the same.
17:19I always watch the game back, but when I watched our game back against Fulham,
17:25I felt the same, it's a bit of a slow start.
17:28It doesn't help that many of our home games one of our players gets a knock
17:33and there's a treatment for one and a half minutes,
17:36and then there's a rule in this country that the player has to be out
17:40for half a minute or 45 seconds, I don't know exactly how long it is.
17:44That doesn't help to build the momentum,
17:47against City and against Madrid I think we had quite a good start.
17:52But when I look back at the Fulham game, the first ten minutes were really good,
17:56we were two or three times threatening them.
17:59Unfortunately for us, the linesmen raised the flag twice,
18:02that wasn't offside, talking about momentum.
18:04It's not a big thing, but it doesn't help to create momentum.
18:08We had a shot from Curtis Jones where we picked the ball,
18:11where we should have had a corner, which the referee gave a goal kick.
18:15I think we started quite well, but if you simply look at goals,
18:21we didn't score in the first ten minutes and we conceded one,
18:24and we took a red card after 15 minutes,
18:27which is difficult because they are vital moments in the first 15 minutes.
18:30But if I look at the other 14 minutes, I like what I saw,
18:33there was intensity, we were on top of them,
18:35we were trying to come in their 18-yard box,
18:38but for the reasons I just gave, the momentum was not the same
18:42as it was against City or Real.
18:45But what we did was the same, let's put it that way.
18:51Cheers.
18:52You're welcome.
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