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Arne Slot spoke on Friday ahead of this weekend’s Premier League encounter against Manchester City.
In his pre-match press conference, the Liverpool head coach discussed the title race, the Reds' improved recent performances, the impact of Florian Wirtz, Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai, and gave an injury update on three players. Here’s every word from Slot’s big pre-match questions.
Title race: “I only focus on ourselves and our main focus is on consistency at the moment. We have lost a few games, much more than we usually do and now we have won two so our focus is on getting consistent and improving and getting players fit and then we will see where that will lead to. But at this moment in time definitely not the only focus we have is the league table.”
Improved performances: ““For me we have reached that level of performance in other games as well when the playing style of the opponent was compared to that. We always knew we were able to do so, I have shown them many times when playing styles were similar we could do the same as we did against Madrid, so it wasn’t a surprise to me how both games went.
“It was helpful to us the other team did what I expected because in eight out of 10 games this season we have faced a different playing style than these teams played before. But Villa and Madrid did what we could expect and that is always helpful, although there is still a lot of work to be done from the players to get a result like that. What we can expect from City is the playing style we always see but the difficult thing is they are very good in it and have very good players so that makes that challenge big again. Every Premier League game, every Champions League game, is a challenge.
Florian Wirtz position: “He has started three games in seven days, because he also played against Crystal Palace - where I also played a few starters, not many. I had to take him off in the end of the game, for me, I felt he was tired but we have to wait and see. We had recovery the day after and they were day off yesterday, and now a two-day lead into City. Florian can play in more than only one position; he can play off the left which he did almost all the time in Leverkusen when Xabi Alonso came and introduced his 3-4-3 system and before he played as a 10 in a 4-3-3. It is more about getting him positions where he is good rather than be focused on 'Is he a 10, is he an 11, is he an eight?'. We would like to have him in and around the 18-yard box, centrally or a bit more off the left or bit more off the right for him to create the amount of chances he has already created for us.”
Alexander Isak fitness: “He will train with the team for the first time today after being three weeks out. I know I said three weeks ago his pre-season was ended, so now we have to see where he is. If you are three week only with the rehab that doesn’t bring him back to the levels he was three weeks ago, although our rehab team has done an incredible job. You cannot compare rehab with games of football or training with the team. As much as we try to replicate it, it’s simply not possible. So, again I have to say give him some time.”
Dominik Szoboszlai form: “I think he has been outstanding throughout the whole season. But these two games [Villa and Real] brought even more out of the team and out of him. That is for obvious reasons, but it is maybe smarter not to say those reasons because I don’t want to say the same reasons over and over again. I think Dominik has a lof of qualities but one is his work without the ball. I like his work without the ball and in the last two games it was even above his own standards.”
Mohamed Salah work-rate: “I have noticed this and it's something that has helped the team a lot. The main focus is on players who score a lot of goals and Mo is goalscoring, goalscoring, goalscoring. But it is not the first time. I think the last time we played Man City away, Pep Guardiola said something about that. It's very important for us to have Mo scoring goals and for Mo to have how he played against City last season where he also scored a goal and assisted and helped the team out a lot in his defensive work. That is also what he did in the week.”
Alisson and Jeremie Frimpong fitness: “Alisson for sure and I expect Jeremie back after the international break as well because we play from November to March. But I don’t expect Jeremie to be fully fit for Forest, but with Alisson we expect this.”
Set-pieces: “There is a difference. In the Premier League, much more is allowed than in Europe. That has nothing to do with us scoring goals in Europe and not the Premier League, by the way. The physicality in the Premier League is different. You see bigger players and see this during the game but also in set-pieces. There is no other league in the world where there is so much emphasis on set-pieces. Every throw-in, every ball, 60-0 yards away from the opposite goal is brought in.
“If you ask me what the difference for us is that, for me, we have been unlucky in the Premier League and maybe a bit more lucky in the Champions League because I can show you the same chances we have created in the Premier League that missed and they led to goals in the Champions League. I can say that if we'd have had the same set-piece balance in the Premier League that we have in the Champions League, we wouldn't be seven points behind Arsenal at the moment. Conceding five and not scoring one unless you want to count the one from Dominik Szoboszlai, which is a set-piece but, for me, it's more throw-ins, corner kicks. If we go back to how we expect to perform, it will always help us in winning more games in the Premier League.”
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