Slot relaxed after Liverpool's comfortable 4-1 Ipswich win

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Slot relaxed after Liverpool's comfortable 4-1 Ipswich win  25/01/2025  Anfield, Liverpool, UK

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00:00The first ones?

00:04We're spinning.

00:06Anything else?

00:08Ander?

00:09Arnoud, today looked like a very comfortable afternoon,

00:12work for you, you saw it?

00:14Yeah.

00:16Yeah, that's mostly because we scored an early goal.

00:22It's been a few times now that we played a home game

00:25that we conceded a goal in the start of the game.

00:28But I think today is the way you want to start the game.

00:31We were aggressive, dominant for 85 minutes.

00:37They've hardly been on our half, I think.

00:41It is a counter-attack threat with the wingers they have and with the left,

00:46but we managed to control that so, so well

00:49because of the amount of work we've put in.

00:52And in the end, of course, we're all a bit disappointed

00:55with conceding a corner, the first one this season.

00:59But for 85 minutes it was almost a perfect performance

01:04against a team that goes to such a low block.

01:08That's not always easy then,

01:11but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.

01:16Jürgen, Mo, you scored a goal,

01:19but Mo, in the past, lost it,

01:22it seems from about 25 yards,

01:24but that didn't take away the team at all.

01:26As a manager, that was just...

01:31Yeah, it's also nice that you come up with it

01:35because mostly it's about Mo, it's about his contract,

01:38or it's about his goals.

01:40And now it's about his defensive work rate.

01:43No, I think that stood out because it was a moment

01:47which we could all see,

01:49but I think if you look at almost all the times we've lost the ball,

01:52I saw a reaction of many players like that.

01:55And that is what I mean with playing against a team with fast wingers,

01:58with a good number nine that goes to such a low block.

02:01It's so difficult to control the counter-attack

02:03and the only way to do so is what Mo did in this moment

02:07and all the other players did in different moments.

02:11Yeah, that's why I was pleased with our performance today.

02:18Hi, Jürgen. I just want to ask you about Dominic Sala's line.

02:21At the start of the season, he was only having one or two shots per game.

02:24In the last three or four games, he's been having five, six, seven shots per game.

02:28Is that something you said to him?

02:31I think that's a development the team is in,

02:34because when we played Brentford we had 37 shots,

02:38a record in the Premier League for an away team.

02:41And then, because he's involved in that team,

02:43he will probably take a few shots then as well.

02:46So it is us, the players behind the ball,

02:49bringing our attacking players even more in promising positions

02:53than we did in the beginning of the season.

02:55Then if you zoom in on Dom,

02:59I think in the beginning of the season he would have played that ball to Mo,

03:03which was for most of the time a very good choice,

03:06because Mo can definitely score a goal as well.

03:09And now he decided to go for himself and score the goal himself.

03:12So, yeah, nice for him, because in my opinion he's a bit underestimated.

03:18Not by me, but he doesn't always get the credits for the fact

03:23that he's very important for this team,

03:25because his work rate is unbelievable.

03:28He just keeps on running with the highest intensity,

03:31and that is so important for a team that wants to compete for something.

03:36Jürgen, there's been an enormous policy on the floor,

03:41but you see him today constantly talking and giving instructions to people.

03:45How important is that to have in a league like that on the pitch,

03:48as well as having to be very comfortable?

03:51If I have to make a list of what Virgil brings to this team,

03:54then we can just go to the next press conference on Tuesday evening against PSV,

04:00because he brings so many positives to this team.

04:04Bringing the ball out from the back, defending...

04:07Is composure the right word?

04:09Yes.

04:11He's definitely a leader.

04:13As a manager, I haven't worked with a lot of players

04:16that can say that they are a leader, but Virgil is definitely a leader.

04:20He's always not only on the pitch, but also on the training ground.

04:24The moment we start the training, he's the loudest one and always leads by example.

04:31He's having a fantastic season,

04:33but I think he's already having seven or eight fantastic seasons over here.

04:38Joe?

04:40Endo seemed to get a painful one in the chest, and then I think he got caught in the face as well.

04:44Were you concerned at that stage when you saw it?

04:48Yeah, when the foul was made I was like,

04:51ooh, that doesn't look good, and the reactions from the players that were around him

04:55showed me that I was like, ooh, let's wait and see.

04:59But after the game, immediately during the game already,

05:03he shakes his head one or two times and just goes again.

05:07His mentality is unbelievable.

05:10And he was fine. It was only a yellow,

05:13so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic,

05:18because, yeah, it was only a yellow.

05:21Or the score was 3-0 or 4-0, so the referee decided not to give a red card?

05:28I don't know. In general, I don't think referees act like that,

05:34because if they do, they hear it from the people above them,

05:39you have to do what is necessary.

05:42So I assume that it was a yellow. I haven't seen it back, but I assume it was a yellow.

05:48Jürgen, something about what you said yesterday about the Liverpool fan,

05:53does that mean he was a Liverpool fan before you arrived at Liverpool,

05:57and do you think he would have been more entertained?

06:00What I meant and what I said was that after the Lille game,

06:05he said, for Liverpool standards, and maybe even for the standards where my teams play,

06:11he found it not as exciting as all the ones before,

06:15because I think three days before we had 37 shots in away games at Brentford.

06:21So I think we've set the bar or the standards quite high, even for my father.

06:27For him to say maybe the Lille game wasn't as exciting

06:30as all the other games I've seen from Liverpool and from my former clubs,

06:35it would be a bit simple or cheap to say that he was the biggest fan of Liverpool

06:40before I arrived here, because that's simply not true.

06:43He's the biggest fan of Feyenoord, because I worked there,

06:46and at the moment he's one of the biggest fans of Liverpool, because I work here.

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