Arne Slot West Ham Carabao Cup preview
24/09/2024
AXA training centre, Liverpool, UK
24/09/2024
AXA training centre, Liverpool, UK
Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00Good morning.
00:12All right, good morning.
00:14Good to see you.
00:16Your first League Cup tie as Liverpool manager,
00:18there'll be lots of firsts throughout the year,
00:21where does this one lie in your priorities for the football club?
00:25It's very important, because it's the next one, the next game we play,
00:29and that's always the most important one.
00:32I know the history of this club, I know what happened last year,
00:35I know how special winning a Cup can be,
00:38so we are far away from that, because it's only the first game
00:41and a lot have to be played,
00:43and we have a difficult tie against West Ham, fortunately at home,
00:47but it's a game to look forward to and an important one,
00:50as always the next game is.
00:52Do you see this as a chance to utilise the squad?
00:56I'm sure there are a lot of players wanting game time,
01:00and you probably want to give them game time.
01:03Yeah, I want all of them to play, unfortunately that's not possible,
01:08because you can only name 11.
01:11But we will play with the best possible team,
01:15and that can sometimes also mean that other players that have played a lot
01:19are maybe a bit more tired,
01:21so that means because the differences are so small
01:24that I will select different players for this game.
01:27But they will come in today and we will look at how fit they are,
01:31and then I will make the decision who's going to start and who isn't.
01:34Is Federico Chiesa pushing for a start, and would you like to see him?
01:40Yeah, I don't think he's able to play 90 minutes.
01:44He only played 25 now as a maximum in the last three, four or five months.
01:49I don't think he played any friendly as a youth player as well,
01:54but he's able to start, in our opinion, and if he will, let's see.
02:00There are many options we have, but he's able to start, in our opinion.
02:06But I don't think he's able to play 90 at the level we are playing tomorrow
02:11against a strong West Ham team.
02:13I know Kelleher has been the goalkeeper in this competition in the main
02:18for the last few seasons, how is Alisson in terms of his fitness?
02:23It's sure that Kweef will be in goal tomorrow.
02:29Alisson is getting there, but I think this game is coming just a bit too early.
02:35We are looking at the weekend against Wolves, but it's going to be tight,
02:41so let's see if he manages to be there.
02:43But he will not be there tomorrow, so Kweef will be in goal tomorrow.
02:48That's the one thing I know for sure at this moment.
02:51Just as holders of the trophy, does that make it different, do you feel?
02:55I know fans love winning trophies, Liverpool keep on winning this trophy.
03:00Yeah, not only fans love winning trophies, players do, and managers do as well.
03:05We all love to win something, but that's far away.
03:09We have to play our first game of this tournament tomorrow,
03:14and like I said, it's a tough one with West Ham United at home.
03:20But, yeah, it's always nice to win something,
03:24and I know in the history of the club they've won it a lot of times,
03:28and recently last season in a very special way,
03:32with so many youngsters on the pitch in the final.
03:35So I think if you've won it last season, it gives a bit of...
03:40How should I say this in English?
03:43We are aware of the fact that we won it last season,
03:46so we are the holders of the trophy,
03:51so we have to protect that, is that the right word to use?
03:56Maybe not perfect, but we're going to give everything to win it again.
04:02Just finally, a word on West Ham,
04:05their start to the season has not been what they would have wanted, really.
04:09How do you see them in terms of coming to Anfield?
04:13Yeah, tough start as well, they face some strong opponents,
04:18and I saw during their games that they have very good spells as well.
04:23Sometimes we're a bit unlucky with the result.
04:26A lot of good players brought in, a lot of players in the summer window
04:31that haven't been implemented yet, but maybe there's a chance for them tomorrow to start.
04:36So they will come back stronger because of all the quality
04:42they already had last season and which they brought in.
04:46We have a good manager as well, so hopefully it's going to take them a few days extra,
04:51but they will come back stronger than they did at the start of the season.
04:58How important is it to get that rhythm into the players
05:01who haven't played as many minutes this season?
05:03How excited are you to see them playing some competitive football from the start?
05:07The ones that haven't played a lot here at Liverpool
05:11have played their games for their countries,
05:15but it's important for them to keep getting playing time,
05:19and it's very, very difficult to arrange some friendlies for them because of our schedule.
05:24So that's why we've rotated already a bit in the last few games,
05:28where you saw other players coming in,
05:31apart from the ones that all started in the first two or three games.
05:35This might be a chance for other players to get some playing time as well,
05:39but it's not only about playing time, it's also for them.
05:43If they do really well during the week, which they've all done till now,
05:47they will get their chance eventually, that's also what you saw with Darwin,
05:51and with Cody as well.
05:54Let's see who will get the chance tomorrow,
05:57but most of them, maybe even all of them, will get their playing time during the season.
06:02We've seen how well Cody Gaffer played against AC Milan,
06:05and Darwin Nunez scored on Saturday as well.
06:08All those players who haven't been playing as much must be really hungry to get that game time.
06:13Yeah, but I think every player is hungry to get playing time.
06:17If you play every week, you're hungry to stay in the team.
06:20There's so much competition in this team, we've got so many good players,
06:24and I think they also like to go out because they like to play.
06:29They play for a great club in front of great supporters,
06:33who would not like to play at a club like this in a home game for tomorrow as well.
06:39We're in a good place when it comes to the quality players we have,
06:44and I can choose between a lot of players for tomorrow again as well.
06:55Arna, Trent said after Bournemouth that he's finding his relationship with you really refreshing,
07:01and he's loving how harsh you are with him
07:04to try and push him to become one of the best defenders in Europe.
07:08What do you think that says about where he is in his career at the moment,
07:12that he's seeking that from you in that way?
07:16It's nice to hear it and to read it,
07:20because I think we all remember the day Jürgen left, what that meant to him.
07:27So you can assume then how good of a relationship the two had,
07:31and to hear him saying this after two or three months about his new manager is always nice,
07:36apart from all other things.
07:40But it's always good that if they have such a strong relationship,
07:44and maybe all of them had that with Jürgen,
07:47it's not always easy to come in and replace a manager like this,
07:51and that he feels it like this is a positive thing, I think.
07:56But it's the same with him as with all the others,
07:59they all get a lot of individual attention to try to make them better,
08:05because if they will get better, then the team will get better as well.
08:08You also said defences win championships,
08:11and we spoke in the last week or so about how it's five clean sheets and six for you now.
08:15I'm just interested to know how well the defence has been going,
08:20has that made your job simpler higher up the pitch?
08:23I appreciate it's all connected.
08:25Has that maybe allowed you to make more progress than you thought you might,
08:29because the defence has been so good?
08:32Yeah, the defence has been really good,
08:34although in our last game I think we needed our goalkeeper too many times to keep the clean sheet.
08:40And I think it was yesterday or the day before I looked at the league table
08:45and looked at, OK, which teams did we face till now and in what position are they,
08:49on the left side of the table or the right side of the table?
08:52And I think all of them, apart from United, I'm not sure about United,
08:56but most of them are on the right side of the table.
08:59We say the right side of the table, is that the way you say it?
09:03OK, OK. We go left and right, but you go just one.
09:11So you have to take that into account as well,
09:13there are a lot of difficult teams we still have to face,
09:16and if we are able, after playing those teams as well,
09:21apart from West Ham United tomorrow, we go in the league for two difficult away games.
09:27Let's see where we are then when it comes to conceding goals,
09:31because maybe the fixer schedule has been nice to us when you look at the league table,
09:37and we've played from the five games, we've played three times at home,
09:41so that helps as well.
09:44Rob?
09:46Trevor, when Kent was talking about the relationship he has with you,
09:50about how much work he wants to do on the defensive side and the pre-defensive side,
09:54I just wanted to talk about what you've been doing with him,
09:58because he's always been seen as this attacking right-back who is more creative,
10:04and the defensive side of his game is something that perhaps has been...
10:15Yeah, it's difficult for me to judge how it has been in the years before,
10:20the only thing I know is that we are talking here about a player
10:23that won the Champions League and won the league title,
10:26and he mentioned himself, Trent, that winning a league is about defending,
10:32so it's clear to me then that he's been a good defender all his life.
10:37But because he's so, so special with the ball,
10:41the main emphasis goes to him doing special things with the ball,
10:45and I think with him it's not about if he's capable of doing things,
10:52it's more his concentration rate, constantly be in 100 per cent focus,
10:59it's where it's more about with him, so this is where we talk about a lot,
11:03that he has to stay active in every situation of the game,
11:07even if the ball is further away from him.
11:10But it's not that we or I learned him to defend in the last three months,
11:15he's won the league, he's won the Champions League,
11:19so it's just getting him to understand what all is necessary to play the best possible game,
11:28and that's what we talk about with all the individuals, but also with him.
11:35Marvin, the Under-21s play tonight, will Trey Ione be in that squad?
11:47Let's see first how everybody comes in this morning,
11:52and then we make a plan for every individual, where he's going to play,
11:56and if they are going to play.
11:59But the way I look at it now, it would be a fair chance for him to be in our squad
12:04instead of being with the Under-21s,
12:08but it also depends on how fit all the other players are.
12:11What do you make of him?
12:13Because there's quite a bit of excitement about him,
12:17because he's a young player with a lot of talent,
12:19but what's your first impression of him?
12:21Yeah, I think what you say is true, he's a young player,
12:24really young, he only just became 17,
12:28but with a lot of talent that had some impact in pre-season,
12:33and when he played against Sevilla he even scored a goal,
12:40so a talent, but only being a talent is not enough to play on a regular basis in the first team,
12:50so we need to keep developing him, he needs playing time to develop,
12:55and that's why sometimes as a manager you feel like,
12:58oh, we might need him with the first team,
13:00but it's so, so important for him to keep playing his game,
13:03that's why he played in Milan also with the Under-19s,
13:07because for him to develop he needs to train with us
13:11and he needs to keep having his playing time at the highest possible level.
13:16But I think training with the likes of all the midfielders we have
13:20and all the players we have helps him to develop as well.
13:24So we're taking good care of him and we're aware of the fact that he's only 17,
13:28just became 17, and that's probably also the reason why people see him as such a talent,
13:34because he already showed some interesting things at this age.
13:40Arne, I wanted to ask you about Ibrahim Mkhitaryan's performance against Bournemouth,
13:44in particular his use of the ball.
13:46It appeared the way the Bournemouth were playing,
13:49it seemed as though they saw it as an apparent weakness,
13:51they were marking Van Dijk very heavily every time Keller had the ball,
13:55so Koumate was often the spare man
13:57and he had the task of trying to make a lot of key decisions in the build-up,
14:01and yet his passes were instrumental in all three goals.
14:04So as a coach, when an opponent sees something as an apparent weakness,
14:08how pleasing is it for you to see it become a strength?
14:12I'm not sure if they see him as a weakness.
14:16What could be is that they see Virgil as an unbelievable strength,
14:21so that makes it maybe for Eboo, it's not that he has a weakness,
14:25but maybe Virgil is even further ahead when it comes to bringing the ball out from the back.
14:31It was a surprise for us as well, because all the games they've played till now
14:35they were pressing the left-centre-back with their number 10,
14:38and this was the first time they went to the right,
14:41and for us it was a really good decision for the reason you just said,
14:44because it led to three goals.
14:46But who knows what would have happened if they had given Virgil the same amount of space,
14:52maybe we would have scored even more.
14:54But it's a very positive thing for us and for me to see,
14:58that if they think they can press Eboo,
15:04that Eboo is capable of finding his team-mates the way he did last Saturday.
15:12Just a word on Kelleher, because obviously we spoke before
15:15about how he possibly might have gone to somebody's stake,
15:18but he was very switched on when you needed him on Saturday,
15:21he must be very pleased that when you can turn to him he will be 100 per cent for you.
15:25Yeah, yeah. I wasn't surprised at all because of his performance,
15:31because he was very good in pre-season already
15:34and I think he was very good with his national team as well.
15:37So it's a good thing for us that we have two quality players
15:41and we forget the third one in his position,
15:44because in almost every position we have two,
15:46but in goalkeepers we have three or four,
15:49and our third one is also a really good goalkeeper.
15:52So it's a good thing for us, and like you saw, we need to have a strong squad.
15:59Because you can pick up injuries or whatever can happen.
16:04So it was good and pleasing to see that he kept a clean sheet,
16:08not in a way that he had nothing to do, but he had to act a few times,
16:12and he acted really well.
16:18Just one more on Luis Diaz.
16:21He seems so highly motivated or something at the moment,
16:25have you done anything differently with him?
16:29The way I looked at Liverpool for the last eight, nine years,
16:34I only saw players that were highly, highly motivated.
16:38I think almost every manager took Liverpool as an example
16:42of how to work without the ball.
16:45So the energy they've put in all these years with Jurgen,
16:48I think that's what you still see, and I'm really happy with this.
16:52So for me I don't see any change, if you see differently that's possible,
16:56because you saw more games than me, but the way I looked at all the Liverpool players
17:00and the way they've played here in recent years,
17:03they were always very aggressive, and that's what he still is.