Every word Arne Slot said on Mohamed Salah, Alexander Isak injury, Liverpool changes for Brentford

Liverpool boss Arne Slot held a lengthy press conference on Friday as he discussed all things concerning the club ahead of Saturday’s game against Brentford.

The Reds head to London tomorrow looking for their first Premier League win in four games, having brought an end to their dismal losing streak with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in midweek.

That will have come as a huge boost to Slot and his players, although it didn’t come without its own issues, with Jeremie Frimpong and Alexander Isak both forced off injured to hand their boss more headaches ahead of the weekend.

And, having been dropped to the bench in Germany, it seems Mohamed Salah may not be all that happy, having deleted references to Liverpool on his social media profiles.

Slot discussed the Egyptian’s form, as well as a number of other topics, during his press conference on Friday - here’s every word the Liverpool boss had to say…

Injury latest

"Jeremie [Frimpong] is not in a good place. He is definitely not going to play today, tomorrow, or next week. Hamstring injury, so that will take a while. Alex [Isak] not too bad. A question mark for the weekend, so let's see where he is then.

"That is the same to be said about Ryan [Gravenberch]. He did not travel with us [to Germany]. So today we are in and let’s see where he is.

"Alisson is not in the squad tomorrow. That is going to take a bit longer."

On Florian Wirtz's assists in midweek

"I find this always a bit funny because his second assist we call that an assist, and the one we scored against [Manchester] United, that's not a goal involvement for him, where I felt that was more difficult to do what he did against United than what he did for the 5-1 [against Eintracht], but the assist at 4-1 was good. I think his general game was something I - and I think the Liverpool fans - liked.

"We've seen more of that already, but as always if you lose a game of football and you do the same things as when you win it, the focus is on the negative. If you win a game of football 5-1 because you scored two set-pieces then all of a sudden everybody is talking about the few good attacks we had during the game.

"I said many times against United and against Frankfurt, from open play we generated the same amount of chances, but the difference was that we didn't concede a set-piece but we scored two."

On finding his best team

"It's not only about new signings and that changes things. It's about a lot of very good players, so what is your best line-up?

"A lot of things go into that. The team you face, the tactics the other team plays with, the form of the player and the connections between the players. I think if you look at all the big clubs in the world, they all have more than 11 players that can play a game.

"For me, it has always been something I expected after the many changes we've had during the summer that it could [take time], also even after we won seven games in a row.

"I always felt like, as a team, you need to grow, and if you have to grow and adapt to each other you can also have moments in the season where things are a bit more difficult, especially if the fixture list is as it was. When we've lost four, I said to myself that three of them were away and then I was looking at the schedule and I thought, 'Oh, another two away games coming with Frankfurt and Brentford on the fixture list!'

"These things also take into account that you can have a little bit of motive. It's always normal if you have a lot of changes that things go well [and not well], but we have to find a way of growing together and then when things click we need to be the best team we can be."

On whether it has been difficult for Mohamed Salah

"I think it's been a difficult moment for all of us. No one is used to losing, for all the players that have played here for so many years and even for the new players as well because we started the season with seven wins. If you start to lose once, that's a difficult moment for everyone, let alone if you [lose] twice, three or four times."

On blocking out 'negativity'

"I don't think I would use the word negativity, but what I mean with that is that there's more focus on, let's say, the second half against Frankfurt.

"I think everybody said, what control, they just keep ball possession. When we were trying to do the same thing in the first half against United, you cannot go. If there were 11 players behind the ball in one pass, ideally you can, but it's not so simple. And when Ibou waits a bit longer, waiting for the right option to find, then it's ‘they need to hurry up more’.

"So that is the difference what the scoreline does to the opinion of people, and what I need to do is show them every single time what did we do well and what did we do wrong, if we win or lose.

"So my meetings are similar, maybe on a small percentage, you include certain things if you lose a few more or if you win a few more, but I told them every single time, from open play, we are the team that generates the most chances from all the teams we've played.

"But we've also conceded more than I like, but that also comes from the fact that we, every time, have to chase the game, because when we were 3-1 up against Frankfurt, we didn't concede a chance anymore.

"So these are things I try to tell them, as well as I try to tell them the main difference between this season and last season is the playing styles we face.

"I've looked at how many long balls we already had to defend, 178 in seven games. And then United came and we had to defend 59 long balls. That's different than the first half of last season. Not as the second part of last season, but as the first half.

"The way to unlock it is a moment of magic, which we had in the first half of the season a lot with Mo, or a set-piece, which we had at Frankfurt as well, because that again was a low block, but two set-pieces unlocked the game for us.

"So this is what I tried to explain to them, and when I tried to explain this in the media, what I tried to do after the game, it was actually more of a compliment for the other manager that he found the right answer to our playing style. But I think, if I'm correct, that wasn't how people looked at it."

On his 'long ball' comments

“Why I said for the first time what I said after the United game - people ask me why was it difficult today, then if that is your question, I have to answer it, and the answer lies in the tactics of the other manager, which is a compliment to him.

“But why I didn't do that before, because I thought it's quite obvious that they’ll do it for a long time now, but I'm not 100 percent sure if every manager that we're going to face in the upcoming weeks knows this.

“But at a certain moment, it's so clear, everybody does this. And even now I've heard that when we played Frankfurt, there were talks between their staff and [Crystal Palace boss Oliver] Glasner, who worked there of course, and he explained to them their way of playing, which is normal that these things happen.

“Yes, we have to adjust, and that's what we've tried to do. That's also what I've told the players, and I can say this here as well. The last two times we faced a 5-4-1 against Palace and against United, we've created more chances than we did every single time we faced a 5-4-1 last season, low block.

“The reason for that is that we've tried to adjust a few things in our playing style as well, and against Frankfurt, we again faced a 5-4-1, where I adjusted maybe even more. But that's not to say that was the reason that we created so much, because we created already a lot against United and against Palace as well.

“We have to find answers to that, and we're not the first team that this happens to. [Manchester] City experienced this for so many years, and they are very, very, very good at playing in these tight spaces, and this is something that we need to do even better than we're already doing.”

On Curtis Jones' progression

"I'm not so surprised that he touched the ball a lot because I positioned him and Dom [Szoboszlai] a bit lower because we missed out on Ryan [Gravenberch]. We faced again a team that was playing in a very low block and didn't press us at all.

"If you're then 3-1 up, you start to pass the ball because you're just waiting for them to find a moment and that's always nicer than when you're 1-0 down and face that low block because then you need to take more risks.

"Curtis, since I'm here I think his playing time went up. There's a reason for that, because I like how he progresses, but still with him, and it's the same question you can ask about every player; he's in competition with five to six very good midfielders. It's good to see he played a very good game against Frankfurt."

On Salah's form

"I don't know if it's sharpness or not. It's so difficult for me to say why this is. I could come up with a few reasons but I am not sure they are the reasons.

"In general in football, players miss chances and Mo is a human being as well. We're not used to him missing chances, let alone a few games in a row, but these things happen. What could have to do with it - and I have no clue if it does - but I could come up with maybe it is easier to maybe finish a chance if you are 3-1 up than if you are 1-0 down, but maybe that is completely not true for him, but could, could, could.

"The main thing is that Mo has always scored goals for our club. The last thing I worry about is Mo starting to score goals again because that's what he's done his whole life and what I expect him to do in the upcoming weeks and months for our club as well."

Has the summer overhaul affected Salah?

"It could. Not particularly maybe the right full-back, but it could [be], by the way, because maybe his whole Liverpool career he played with Trent [Alexander-Arnold], so it could.

"But, like you just said, he has been in promising positions often enough for him to score goals. Maybe with Trent even more, I don't know, but I think in general for every player if you have quite a few changes in your squad during the summer then everyone needs to find new connections again and that normally goes like this a little bit.

"Mo is not an exception to this because he's also a human being like all the others, so it might have something to do with that, but yes, like you've seen now again, in an ideal world you play every single time with the same team [but] that's not realistic for a team that plays every three days.

"Even if you would want to, it wasn't possible because Jeremie Frimpong has been in and out with injuries a few times, Conor Bradley has been in and out with injuries, let alone [Alexis] Mac Allister missed out on pre-season and Alex [Isak]. So, I think it might be one of the reasons why we haven't been as consistent as we were last season."

Why he made changes against Frankfurt

"A bit of everything I would say. It was maybe also the first time there was an opportunity to play with both Alex and Hugo [Ekitike] because of Alex missing out for so long. We thought this was the first time he was ready to play twice in a row, so that is also an extra reason but yes, you always look at the opponent you face and against Frankfurt we thought, I thought, they might be a bit vulnerable in and around their centre-backs when it comes to pure speed.

"If there is one thing you can say about Alex and Hugo it is they are fast, especially after seeing the first goal Hugo scored. I don't think we did so many things different, the only thing we maybe changed was instead of playing with a nine and 10 behind each other they were closer to each other with two No.9s.

"We still had one winger on the left side with Cody Gakpo and our right winger, Florian Wirtz, who hardly played as a right winger and had more of a free role. Small margins I think were different. For the rest, I think we've mainly played similar to how we played last season with maybe the difference that certain players, certain new players, bring different characteristics."

On facing Caoimhin Kelleher

"Maybe a goalkeeper is an exception, but in general I don't think it's a healthy situation for a player to be on the bench longer than a year or miss out on many games in a year and then go into a next season. It's so hard for them to keep giving everything on a daily basis. So, that was also one of the reasons why we thought it was best for Jarell Quansah, for Harvey Elliott to find another club.

"For Caoimh, like I said, goalkeepers are a bit of an exception, but he did this for so many years that he felt it was time for him to start playing - and he has shown that he is right because he is doing really well.

"And although I haven't worked with him, we are also going to face Jordan Henderson. In Holland they cannot stop talking about how much Ajax is missing Jordan Henderson, so that tells you how important he was for Ajax and how important he has been for Liverpool and how important he now is for Brentford."

Why Milos Kerkez has started every league game ahead of Andy Robertson

"I don't think that's a place for me to say this here, because then I have to say something about Robbo as well. The reason why we brought him in, that I can tell you, is that he is bringing a lot of energy to the game, keeps going up and down. And he's very well in defending the one-v-one situations against his wingers as well. So, defensively solid and a lot of energy making the overlaps.

"For me, he's been a bit unlucky that Cody has used mainly his biggest strengths of coming inside and hitting the target, but we've shown Cody as well that there were a few moments that maybe playing the ball towards Milos would have been a better option.

"So, again, an example of two players playing together that need to find their connection even better than they already do. That's why we brought him in and I think that's a better answer to your question than starting to compare him with Robbo."