Slot on much changed Liverpool 2-1 cup win at Southampton
18/12/2024
St Mary's stadoium, Southampton, UK
18/12/2024
St Mary's stadoium, Southampton, UK
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SportsTranscript
00:00How are your seats?
00:04Good. Warm. Warmer than I think down the line.
00:08But hopefully it stays with one time.
00:11Were you nervous in the 93rd, 94th minute when there was the ball over the top?
00:21The moment the ball is over the top you're not nervous,
00:23but the moment you see two players colliding into each other,
00:26is that the word to use? Collide?
00:29Then you always wonder what the decision might be.
00:32In real life I thought, ooh, he could have made a different choice.
00:40But then I saw it back and I felt that he just used his arm.
00:45For me it wasn't a foul.
00:49You never know referee decisions, do you?
00:54You're welcome.
00:59It's a different looking team tonight.
01:02Watson and Harvey's first start of the season.
01:05How impressed were you with these players coming in from the cold?
01:11Harvey already had a good impact in the game during the weekend against Fulham.
01:16So it was good to see that he's able to play 90 for him today and even score a goal.
01:21I started him off on the right, I felt he was a bit...
01:25He got a bit bored so he didn't touch the ball a lot,
01:27so we changed this after 15-20 minutes of playing him in the midfield.
01:31We know he's a better midfielder than he is a winger,
01:34but we had to do it like this.
01:39So that was pleasing to see.
01:43If I have to give someone a big compliment it should be Endo Wata.
01:48Because on a different position, playing such a good game in these circumstances,
01:54that shows you what a quality player he is,
01:57but maybe mainly what kind of mentality and personality he has.
02:02Good to see them both, but I think it was not only them.
02:06You highlighted them, so I answer your question.
02:13How pleased are you with the depth of talent in the academy?
02:20I think this club is known for this.
02:25I heard the fans singing for Trent a song about the Scouser,
02:28I don't know exactly what they sing,
02:30but it probably has to do with him coming from the academy as well.
02:33We have already a few starters from our academy,
02:37and to see these players that train with us on a daily basis,
02:41we know their quality and it's nice to see that they show on Premier League level
02:45that they can easily play at this level.
02:48The thing for them is it's not about easily playing at this level,
02:51you have to compete with Mo, Virgil and all these kind of players,
02:54so it's not enough to be good enough to play at this level,
02:57you have to be good enough to play for Liverpool,
02:59and that is probably even the next step they have to make,
03:03but they've shown today that these players are capable of playing at Premier League level.
03:09What did you make of Federico Chiesa tonight?
03:11It's obviously his first minute since September.
03:14Have you got a timescale on when you might think you'll see the best of him?
03:19I don't know if we saw the same, but I think what I saw is what you can expect.
03:24If a player is out for five or six months, you cannot expect...
03:31I saw ups and downs, I saw some really good moments
03:34and I saw some moments where I felt like, OK, you can do better than this.
03:37For me, that's completely normal if a player has been out for so long
03:40and plays his first game in five, six months probably,
03:44and I already said before that that makes it also so difficult for me
03:48because normally in the pre-season a player gets three, four or five games,
03:52and then he's only out for four or five weeks.
03:55Now he's out for so long, so to get him back to his best level is not easy,
04:02but it was good to see that he showed some quality already today.
04:05But same for him, like for the youngsters, it's not enough to play at this level.
04:10You have to compete with Mo Salah, Cody Kakpo, Lucio, Darwin, Diogo,
04:16but it's good to see that he's back and he also had a few good moments in the game.
04:21How much of a risk is it when you make so many changes?
04:24You left a lot of players back at home,
04:26how much of a risk is it in the quarter-final after all?
04:29Are you concerned about that?
04:31It would be normal if I play with all the regular starters
04:35that we have a better team than we had tonight,
04:37otherwise I make the wrong decision every week.
04:39Which is maybe a possibility, but we also trust these players
04:44because we know how much quality they have.
04:47So that's the first reason to play these players,
04:50that we have a lot of confidence in them as well.
04:52Second of all, it's not about a result on Sunday,
04:55it's more for the long-term fitness of the players that we made the decision
04:59that the ones that played so many minutes to give them a bit of rest during this week,
05:05because the schedule is going to be intense again in the upcoming weeks.
05:10And for the ones that have played a lot, only 45 or 60 minutes,
05:14and the ones that haven't played a lot, play 90.
05:17So that's what we did and it's good for us that it was enough to win it.