Liverpool boss Arne Slot on learning the mental strength of his players in their 2-2 draw with Everton in the Merseyside Derby and his red card at the end of that game and what they can take from that going into their Premier League clash with Wolves
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
Melwood, Liverpool, UK
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00:00Good morning, good morning.
00:05Finish the celebration.
00:07Yeah.
00:08That's good.
00:09I want a face couple.
00:10Yeah.
00:11Morning, Oli.
00:12It'll be interesting to get your reaction from Wednesday night, if we could please.
00:23Any further clarification for us on why the red card was issued?
00:29Are we able to understand how and why?
00:32There's an ongoing process now and I think I have to respect that, we have to respect
00:39that so I can't go into details.
00:42So if you specific your question a bit more maybe I can answer something but not into
00:46the details.
00:49Do you feel because of the handshake then?
00:52Was there anything that you directly said to Michael Rother that would have deemed disrespectful?
00:58I think what happened was that the extra time, the intentional five minutes that ended
01:05up being eight, there happened a lot and the emotions got the better of me and if I could
01:12do that differently, if I look back at it I would love to do it differently, I'm hoping
01:18to do it differently next time as well.
01:21But what has exactly been said or what has happened, I just told you there's an ongoing
01:26process and I don't want to disturb that.
01:29So what are your reflections on your side's overall performance and the result on Wednesday?
01:38It felt immediately after the referee blew his whistle that we lost two points but during
01:43the whole 98 minutes I didn't feel constantly that we were the ones that were going to win
01:50the game, it felt like an equal game and a draw would have been maybe a fair result.
01:55But with us leading after 97 minutes we were quite close to winning the game so it felt
02:00as if we dropped two points.
02:03But I think we won a lot Wednesday as well and what I mean with that is if I look at
02:08the togetherness of the team together with the fans, how much they fought together to
02:12get the result over the line, we've been praised so many times this season about how well these
02:18players can play but they showed a different side of themselves Wednesday, in my opinion
02:24also much better than the year before.
02:26They were mentally so, so, so strong during a game that was played maybe in the most difficult
02:33circumstances for them as well and to stay strong together, to fight so hard, to be mentally
02:41so strong, that gives me a lot, a lot, a lot of confidence for the upcoming 14 games.
02:46I already knew how well they can play but the togetherness they showed during 98 minutes
02:54shows me that we are a very, very difficult team to beat.
02:59Given that there are going to be a lot of emotions and emotionally charged games in
03:03the title run-in now, are there learnings to take from Wednesday night?
03:08Like I just said, you mean from me or from the players?
03:13Yeah, the players and the club as a whole, yeah.
03:16I think the players, I just said so I can give the same answer again, they really stood
03:21up in a positive way for me, so mentally being so strong in those circumstances.
03:30If you don't play your best game, and part of our game plan was of course to prevent
03:34them from playing so many balls into our box, but it's difficult to prevent that if you
03:41can see 23 kicks, so then you just have to act what is their strongest asset maybe, playing
03:50the balls in with all these centre-backs and full-backs coming up, and apart from the
03:54first goal that we conceded from a free kick, I think we defended that really well.
04:00Players showed that they are more than 11 quality individuals that can play together
04:06in ball possession so well, they also showed they have great mentality, again, in what
04:12I've experienced now, the most difficult circumstances we've played in until now.
04:17Looking at the big picture, 14 games to go in the Premier League season,
04:21does a performance and experience like you had on Wednesday night actually serve to benefit
04:26this group going forward, looking at the title run?
04:30Yeah, that's a bit of a similar answer that I just gave.
04:34Of course, we would have loved to go nine points up, that would have been probably better
04:39than seven, or not probably, that would have been better than seven, but we take a lot
04:44of positives from the game as well, not football-wise, so we didn't play our best game in terms of
04:52ball possession, but I have to give credit to David Moyes as well, since he came in he's
04:59done a tremendous job and he made it a really, really, really hard game for us, but the players
05:04stood up, in my opinion, because I did watch the game back last season, I told you in the
05:11pre-match press conference, we were mentally much stronger than last season.
05:18We went 1-0 down and came back by leading the game until the 97th minute with 2-1.
05:25Looking ahead to this weekend then, what's the team news heading into Wolves,
05:29and what do you expect from Wolves now they've got a different manager and potentially a different start?
05:34Yeah, I said second half of the season is always more difficult than the first half,
05:38for many reasons, some teams bring new players in, some teams play longer together,
05:42so they are playing better together, some teams bring new managers in, like Everton,
05:46and this manager at Everton is doing a great job.
05:50The one from Wolves has made them better as well, although I said back then that
05:59Kerry O'Neill has been very, very unlucky, because I think he deserved much more points
06:04than he got for several reasons, but the new manager that came in has done a very good job,
06:12got some positive results, so it's going to be a challenge again on Sunday,
06:17but that is normal in the last part of the season, in the best league of the world.
06:22You can't expect to go out there and have an easy win, so it's always going to be a tough one,
06:30but players have shown for the whole season that they are ready for tough games.
06:34And what's the team news against them this weekend, any changes?
06:37We saw Trent, of course, being able to play,
06:42it was the intention to play around half an hour, I think he played somewhere around half an hour,
06:47so he will be training with us again.
06:49Joe Gomez is out and Tyler Morton is out, and I think those are the only two, am I right?
06:54Yeah, we were off yesterday, so I don't know exactly...
06:58Cody is a bit of a doubt as well, so let's wait and see how he is today.
07:04I had to take him off because of an injury, because he got a knock, so let's see how he is today.
07:11Mike.
07:12Jürgen, you've spoken already a couple of times about the mental strength and resilience
07:17that the players showed on Wednesday night,
07:22that's going to be an important quality between now and the end of the season,
07:26how do you actually go about instilling that in the players?
07:29Is it something you do on the training ground, do you work with them in here,
07:34do you work with them collectively, do you bring other people in?
07:38Because it's a difficult quality to give a quantifiable element to, isn't it?
07:46Yeah, it's not that we bring someone else in.
07:50Is he making a picture now?
07:56I think it's the same with trying to implement the playing style,
07:59on a daily basis, maybe not every single day,
08:02but you also try to implement certain things mentality-wise,
08:06so you talk during training sessions or meetings also about these kinds of things.
08:12And a part of mentality is, of course, also just work as hard as you can
08:18and in the most difficult circumstances, so if things go against you
08:21or the other team is better than you at a certain moment, how do you react?
08:25So, yeah, you talk on a daily basis about that.
08:30I think I've said already that I also, two days before the game,
08:34or one day before the game, I showed them some clips from last season,
08:39how the game was being played and how we reacted on certain situations.
08:48So it's an ongoing process, but it's also,
08:51if you want to play at a top club like this,
08:53you need to have more than only quality.
08:55If you only have quality, probably you don't end up at Liverpool,
08:57so you need to have mentality as well.
08:59So it's a combination of that these players have this inside of them,
09:03otherwise you don't play for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
09:06And it's something you try to address on a daily basis to create the right mentality.
09:14And Wolves under Vito Pereira, a significant improvement.
09:19It's never about one player, clearly,
09:21but in Matthijs Koonje, they have a player with star quality, that X-factor,
09:28and somebody for opposing sides, very difficult to get a handle on during the match.
09:35How do you propose to cope with that?
09:37He's the type of player that I'm referring to when I always say,
09:41if I compare the leagues where I've worked in and this league,
09:47I don't know exactly where Wolves is at the moment,
09:49so somewhere between... Where are they at the moment?
09:53Seventeen.
09:55If you go to the Dutch league and you look at the number 17,
09:58there's no player that can play for Ajax, PSV or Feyenoord.
10:01But Matthijs Koonje is a quality player,
10:03and he has the quality to play for one of the top five teams in England.
10:08And that is also one of the reasons why it's so much more difficult
10:13to win a game against the number 17 in England than to win a game against the number 17 in Holland.
10:20Again, we already saw when we played against them with Kerry O'Neill,
10:26they had a very good performance back then as well, and he in particular.
10:31So we know that it's going to be a tough game on Sunday again.
10:38Arna, how likely would Curtis Jones have been to have started this game,
10:42but is it maybe a little bit of a shame that he gets a little bit of a hurdle
10:46and a stumble in his possible momentum there?
10:49The good thing is that we've played so many games.
10:51I think he got a second yellow, didn't he, if I'm correct?
10:54I assume that's the same in England as in Holland,
10:57that's only one game then, so he's been out then for one game.
11:01And then next Monday is a game, and then Sunday again there is a game.
11:06So, he comes back from an injury, so he missed already a few games.
11:11I was planning to start him against Plymouth, he wasn't completely recovered yet.
11:15I liked him a lot when he came in, a very good half-hour,
11:18I think it was the best part of our game after we made the substitutions.
11:25That was the only part of the game where I felt a bit of comfort,
11:31and a bit of, hmm, maybe this feels like a bit of control.
11:36I didn't think we controlled the game or whatever,
11:38but maybe the most we controlled the game,
11:44and maybe because of that we went 2-1 up.
11:48And afterwards I felt maybe we could have defended the lead,
11:55or we were good enough, we didn't concede a lot afterwards anymore.
11:59I think before we scored the 2-1 and before we made the substitutions,
12:04the game could have gone either way.
12:07Any more for the breakouts?
12:09James?
12:11Jürgen, were you more upset with the amount of added time than with the push on Canarty?
12:19I just said that many things in extra time happened that led to me being quite emotional.
12:26There was a far incident for two minutes where he checked,
12:31I thought maybe the only thing that could happen is that he looks back at the file,
12:36and then all of a sudden I was happy, like, ooh, maybe it's offside?
12:40And of course then, after ten minutes, you hear their fans cheering,
12:45so you're like, hmm, OK, it wasn't offside.
12:48So many things happened in the end phase in extra time,
12:54but like I said, it wouldn't be smart to go into every single incident.
12:59Just on Curtis at the end, can you understand that he reacted the way he did?
13:05I like a lot that he stands up for the team,
13:08but I think there are also other ways for the team and for the fans to do that, maybe.
13:18I will talk with him about that, but it's the same for me.
13:24I should have acted differently after the game as well.
13:29But it's an emotional sport, and sometimes individuals out of emotion
13:35make the wrong decision, and that's definitely what I did.
13:40Hi, Arno, you mentioned about the improvement in midfield after the substitutions,
13:45and in the early going, the starting midfielders,
13:47I think I only managed to make five passes to the starting forward,
13:50so there was a real disconnect between the midfield and the forward line.
13:54You also mentioned the high foul count, which is quite strange for a team
13:57that had so much ball possession to have so many more fouls than their opponents.
14:02Do you think that played a part of the way the game was being officiated?
14:06Maybe some of the midfielders felt they couldn't make those kind of passes?
14:11No, I only said that part of our game plan was to prevent them from playing a lot of long balls,
14:17but it's difficult to prevent the goalkeeper from playing a long ball,
14:21and it's difficult if they get a free kick,
14:23because it's not allowed to stay one metre in front of the ball,
14:26so they are able to play the ball long, and I liked the way we defended that.
14:31I haven't said anything about the way it was officiated, is that the word you used?
14:37But it was clear that our midfielders and the whole team
14:42weren't able to bring our attackers in a lot of promising positions,
14:45because I think we scored two goals, and maybe we created a two-and-a-half chance.
14:52So, again, it shows you the quality of our finishing,
14:58but I would have loved to have acted differently after the game,
15:03I would have loved us to play the game in a different way,
15:05but it's so hard to play the game in a different way
15:08if you face the circumstances we faced and the playing style we faced,
15:16so that's why I was happy that we coped with that playing style in such a good manner.
15:22OK, Xhan. Thank you.