I rmb i saw an article saying by that time actually edwards wanted Isak, but Klopp wanted Nunez instead.

After klopp left, edwards is back, so... u know i know la..

“As you know from me, and I think every manager works like this, you never talk about players that are not yours,”

“So I can talk to you about Hugo, who we’ve signed recently and has done really well until now.

“We are very happy with the squad we have and there’s every reason to be happy about that, because we won the league last season.

“OK, players left, but we’ve brought players in as well and youngsters are doing good.

“So at this moment in time Darwin might leave, indeed, but things are not signed yet. We need to wait maybe a few days before that’s completely done, but there is indeed a chance that he’s going to leave.”

“What you just said, they (Endo, Robertson and Gravenberch) can definitely play there as well. And you forgot to mention Joe Gomez.

“Unfortunately, he has a minor injury at the moment, but he will be back with the team very soon.

“So, we still have numerous options that can play there. But as always, what I always say, it’s the same boring answer as with players that we might bring in or not.

“I’m really happy with the players we already have, and we have numerous players that can play in that position.”

“You never know how an individual handles a situation,” the head coach admitted.

“It was a year ago when Trey Nyoni scored a goal, I think against Sevilla, when he was also only 17 – very young!

“So they have an incredible chance to work and be everyday around players like Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and all these players, to see what they do to be ready to perform every three days.

“That is a step these players definitely have to make, which is completely normal if you are 16 or 17.

“It’s already nice if they can play once a week at a good level and we just try to develop them in the best way we can.

“But we also have to take care of them, because new players that come in who are 24, 23, 22 already experience that the intensity levels are quite high, let alone players that are 16 and coming through the academy.

“So we are aware of that, but it’s been a promising start for [Rio], like for Trey Nyoni as well. I think Trey also played a good game at Anfield.”

Counter-attacks, set-pieces, long-balls to Mateta and individual quality of their forwards. Bilbao, Milan and Yokohama already gave us good competition. Palace hit the ground running again, it is still the same team. A good challenge for us to start the season.

“We definitely thought about that,” Slot told reporters on Friday.

“And we brought in Jeremie Frimpong because we think he can play as a right full-back, but I also think and feel he can play as a right winger.

“So yes, we thought about the fact that we’re going to miss Mo, I think for a maximum six games, but that’s a lot in the Premier League, especially if you see how well he did last season.

“Signing Jeremie Frimpong was for multiple reasons, but one of them was also that he could replace Mo if Mo is not there.

“There are other options for me to replace Mo with as well, but Jeremie is definitely one of them.”

He will be in the squad. He was out for two months or longer. He trained with us, played 30 mins, 45 mins. Starting is possible but not for 90 minutes.

“The club have agreed a deal, but he hasn’t signed for us yet.

“The moment he signs for us, I can go into more detail.”

“The other one is of course the answer you always get from me,” Slot explained.

“Because he’s not our player. Unfortunately he was the captain of the team we lost against last Sunday.

“If you want to have any talks about him, you could go to Palace, [Oliver] Glasner, ask him about him.”

I took over a team and only had 2 weeks to prepare because of Euros and Copa America. Every season has its challenges, this challenge this year if we have lost many starters and brought in many good, talented players. It is the teams we face too, Bournemouth who were probably most intense team in the league, for running. Then Newcastle and Arsenal, which sums up this league. Bournemouth are intense, we won 3-0 at Anfield but if you look at the game, they scored which was fractionally offside and then three times we were very fast in moving the ball back to forward and at hallf-time we were 3-0 up.. In Holland I think that is 5-0 but they kepy going after half time and that is their mentality. So away it was even more difficult, so very good team and manager."

In my opinion Jeremie and Conor are similar, but Jeremie is maybe better in one-v-ones than Conor. If you play against these two, you know you have to be aware of them, so maybe Mo gets more space. If you isolate them it is difficult [for the opposition] as well. So it's different types but I think both types and Trent proved it with Mo, he brought the best out of Mo and we think the same will happen with Conor and Jeremie, with Mo."

“He might be young, but he’s already won a lot, so I don’t think we can see him as a young player,” Slot said.

“He won the league in Germany, won the cup, played for his country numerous times, and apart from that, his mentality is maybe his biggest strength.

“That says a lot because if you see him play you’re like, ‘are you serious?’, because he’s so creative.

“He doesn’t get distracted at all by a transfer fee or anything else – good players always find a way to play well in good teams.”

“We have a very good player-care department, so I am not looking for houses together with him!” Slot joked.

“But on the training ground and in videos, he needs help to understand the way we want to play, and that’s not 180 degrees different to Xabi Alonso.

“The system is different, but we want to be intense and Alonso wanted to be intense.

“He liked to dominate possession and tried to bring him in positions that we want to try and bring him in.

“But it’s true he has to adjust to England – to the league, to the intensity and his new teammates – but if you saw the games, his adjustment went quite well.

“Better than we even expected, and we already expected a lot.”

“Probably everyone has forgotten how he got his suspension. He got two yellow cards, the first one for a dive,” he told reporters on Thursday.

“Now there’s one team in the league that is, in my opinion, by far the most honest team when they play.

“I sometimes blame them for never trying to make a little bit more from a foul, like Cody in the 2-2 we conceded against Palace [in the Community Shield], he got a push in the back but he was far too clean.

“So if there’s any one team in the league that is very clean and never dives, never wastes time and all these kinds of things, then it’s us.

“And we have a suspension now for a player diving, which he got his first yellow card for.”

He can play both roles very well. There are things he can improve but what stands out with Szoboszlai is how he presses, not many better in the world than him for that. He can find spaces as a 10, maybe the end product with through balls and if he plays behind the ball he needs to adjust but he's had a good pre-season.

Joe, I have to make a decision on that, he missed a lot of pre-season, trained twice but the Palace game, two teenagers, so there is a possibility he might be on the bench."

“Newcastle signed, if it’s true and I have no reason not to believe what you’re saying, a new No. 9, which is very nice for Eddie Howe,”

“Anthony Gordon is suspended and Isak has not been training with the team a lot, so it’s nice for him to have another number nine.”

“I think I’ve said after Monday evening that again, I could make a substitution that impacted the game.

“That’s what Federico did against Bournemouth, that’s what Rio did now against Newcastle.

“So as always, we try to sign players that can help us, but there’s no reason after the first two games to complain or to think we need more.

“But if we can strengthen the squad, then we will always try to do that, if it’s for the right money and it’s the right player.

“There are only three, four days to go now, let’s see if we do something, and if we do something, what we can do.”

“I think he has already made a big impact in the attacking part of our game,” Slot assessed.

“Not only scoring goals but also being part of build-up situations where he was someone that started the attack or was part of us starting an attack.

“I’m talking about a difference a bit more than last season, although when Lucho played there, he was also a lot of times part of our build-up.

“The most simple answer to what he can improve is his match fitness. I expect him to do a lot, a lot more without the ball than he already does, because he’s already working hard.

“There he can improve, which is completely normal because he has to adjust from a different league, from a different playing style. Frankfurt pressed, but not as much as we try to do.

“And then coming to a different country, coming to a different league, there’s a lot for him to handle.

“And then we come back after the international break, it’s Champions League games added to that, where he was used to playing, I think, Europa League, which is also a good level but not as high as Champions League.

“There is the main point of improvement, which is completely normal because he came a bit later in pre-season.

“So to adapt to the intensity levels without the ball, I think there are small steps to make for him.”

I think they have similarities, the playing style of Arsenal not changed too much. A different No9 this season but Gabriel Jesus played but Gyokores is different to Havertz, who is more false 9, and a target man who maybe makes more runs in behind. I think it is the same style."

“Left-winger, that’s the role I see for him! Or is that not what you mean?”

He then added: “On a serious note, I think this whole press conference started with the spending of us [and] all other clubs in the Premier League.

“The nice part of it all is that then, in the end, a 16-year-old coming from the academy – partly Chelsea, partly ours – scores the winning goal.

“So, that’s also the beauty still of football that although we’ve spent a lot, sold a lot as well, there is still room [for him].

“If we only spend and do not sell, then there was probably not room for him. But now there is room for him and he can show his qualities.

“As things stand now, there’s still room for him to show that in the upcoming game as well because we haven’t made any signings, so I think he will be on the bench again and has a fair chance of coming in if he’s needed.”

I think the positive is Bradley has trained the whole week. Mac Allister started training again. So no injuries. Virgil is also OK."

A lot happened on the last day, which isn't always the situation but the thing that pleased me most is us getting Alex over the line. Richard, owners, everyone worked so hard to get the deal done. It's good for the club, fans, players, me - all the work they put in resulted in Alex signing for us.

“I think it would be a bit ridiculous if I deny that we were close to signing him. It was so out in the open it would be ridiculous,”

“These things happen in football. It happens to our players, maybe in the past as well, that they thought they were so close to signing somewhere else and in the last moment things changed.

“This can happen. We would have liked to sign him, of course, because we were in for him.

“Like I’ve said many times, if we feel we can strengthen the team with a chance in the market, we never hesitate to do so. That’s what we tried to do.

“But we played one or two days before [deadline day] against Arsenal, and Ibou and Virgil played an outstanding game.

“Joe Gomez came in 20 minutes before the end and did outstanding as well. With us signing Giovanni Leoni, Ryan and Wata that can play there, so it’s not like all of a sudden we don’t have options anymore.

“It’s a pity, not only for us but also for the player. But he’s in a good place playing at Palace, where won the Charity Shield and FA Cup with a very good manager.

“Let’s see what the future brings for him and for us.”

“First of all I think the Sweden manager, Jon Dahl Tomasson, deserves a big, big, big compliment,”

“Because he gets one of the best – maybe the best – strikers in the world and needs to play two very important games for his country, but understands that if he would play him twice for 90 minutes probably the player would have been injured for multiple weeks.

“That’s not always easy for a manager, that he takes care of the interest of a player. So he deserves a big compliment for that.

“And we will treat Alex the same as they did. So don’t expect him to be, every single game, on the pitch for 90 minutes.

“That’s definitely not going to happen in the upcoming weeks.

“He missed a proper pre-season, I think he missed three or four months of team sessions, and so now we have to build him up gradually.

“With us playing so many games, hardly any training time, that’s going to be a challenge.

“But we’ve signed him not only for the upcoming weeks, we’ve signed him for six years.

“This is what we have to keep in mind and what the fans have to keep in mind if they see me taking him off at a certain moment, or if I only bring him in for a small amount of minutes.

“That’s all for the long-term fitness of the player.”

“Maybe people don’t believe me when I give you this answer, but I haven’t spoken to him that much,” Slot continued.

“I spoke to him after he signed, by phone, because he had to go to the national team.

“And the way I, 99 out of 100 times, treat my players during international breaks is I leave them for the manager they are working with over there.

“So I texted him now maybe once or twice, because he’s new to us, I wanted to know how he did.

“I do have to get to know him as a person much better in the upcoming days and weeks.

“But although we find it very important how someone is, because we have such a great culture here at this club, we mainly sign a player also for his qualities and therefore I don’t need to call him.

“We faced him a few times, I faced him a few times, and I know what a quality player he is!”

“Harvey is in a very good place, going to a very nice club with Aston Villa,”

“I think it’s in the interest of everyone. He didn’t get the playing time he probably deserves for the quality player he is, and he always conducted himself so well.

“It wasn’t only when he said that this was his club that he wanted to say this to the fans; he acted inside, with him not playing much, always doing what was in the best interest of the club.

“He deserves a big compliment for that,” Slot emphasised.

“I know everybody always talks about Mo and Virgil and the others when we win the league, but players like him were definitely also the reason why we could win it.“He was always positive and if he had to play five or 10 minutes, he helped the team, and in every session he did.

“That is partly the success of a team, that the ones that don’t play that much have the right mindset.

“I think he’s completely ready now to show the quality he has at Aston Villa.”

“Of course, that is one of the most difficult things you have to do as a manager,”

“For a player not to play, that’s not always easy to tell him, but to not be in the squad is always more difficult.

“I just explained to him why we made this choice, and of course he wasn’t happy with that, but I think he understood my arguments.

“Not to say that he agreed with them – he didn’t tell me, by the way, that he didn’t agree with them – but he gave the answer you want to hear from a player.

“[He told me] that he will be to help the team in the cups and in the league – and that’s one thing to say, but I think he also showed this, because he wasn’t selected but he worked really hard to be ready for the upcoming games.

“That is even more important than what a player tells you.”

“I don’t think I tell the media a lot how we start the game, we had recovery yesterday and will train later this afternoon,”

“Alex did feel his body more than ever before after the 60 minutes he played, so let’s see how he recovered today, and then we’ll think about the lineup.”

"The change of routine has to do with the early kick off, so we gave them a bit of extra time to recover and a lot of that is sleep, as we all know. We had to play 3 games in a week which we have to do a lot but not many times in six days. Sunday, Weds, Sat is not a schedule you see a lot."

“I consider it, of course, because you consider many things and it always depends on how well they’re doing,”

“So if both of them are in the best form of their life, you consider even more playing them together.

“But it’s also quite clear that we have a certain structure, which has mainly been 4-3-3, playing with three midfielders.

“But the amount of times in the end phases of the game we’ve played with two No. 9s has happened quite a lot as well.

“Hugo can indeed also play from the left, different than Cody or Rio. So yes, that’s the good thing about our squad, we have multiple options.”

“If some of them are not fit we may have to use them both in a 4-4-2 but it all depends on the form of them and how many players we have available.”

"They had a good spell when we faced them last season, made some good signings, one of them is Jack Grealish on loan who was worth £100m, he is doing so well. So a good team and there is rivalry but what I also liked...what they did when Diogo passed away, coming to Anfield. Their captain and of course they showed their respect, sports director to sports director, so it is nice to see this respect after such tragedies. So we are looking forward to this game, every Anfield game is special but this derby is more special."

It differed to other derby days, what I like so much in England, no matter how much the rivalry is there with Everton, Newcastle, Man Utd,...the fans can be together, the 10 LFC shirts were standing with Newcastle fans I saw, which is impossible in Holland. I hope we can keep this here, the fans are so passionate but they respect each other as well. Ajax v Feyenoord, away fans are not allowed anyway. It makes it much nicer if both fans are there."

"For me when you are a great player you still contribute to the team even when you don't play. Not a lot of them can contribute to the team with goals and assists when they don't play, that is what stands out for Mo, especially as a winger. It is so difficult to always be the player he was against Atletico but he still has goals and assists and that is why he is still so highly regarded and respected. A lot of players play well when the team is and not a lot can score or assist when they don't. But I prefer to see him how he was against Atletico. Newcastle, hardly ever in play with the ball, so it was tough but Atletico was a joy to watch."

“We’ve only played five games so it’s difficult to see something for the long term in it,”

“We’ve given away 2-0 leads three times and it’s completely different how we gave away the goals. Bournemouth was counter-attacks, I don’t think Atletico scored counter-attacking goals.

“It’s not ideal to have a 2-0 lead and give it away so we have to improve but the positive thing is if we feel the urgency again we are able to score a goal.

“This is definitely something we talk about, the 2-0 lead, because you can run out of energy at the end of the season if every game mentally and physically you have to go all the way to the end to win a game of football.

“It’s never a good idea to keep on doing it but if we need it I still hope we can do it.”

“We got criticised when we were 2-0 up against Bournemouth we were still attacking with 12 players in their box,” he joked.

“It was the same against Atletico Madrid, we created so many chances compared to other games this season so we were not trying to keep the lead, we were trying to make it 3-0 or 3-1.

“Maybe we should, in some moments, be a bit more composed or calm but I like that mentality we have.”

“He tore his ACL which means he will be out for around a year.

“Being so young, coming to a new country, doing so well in his first game, it’s very hard to take the positives.

“You always try to look at a positive side and that is he is still so young and has so many years to go after he recovers from a terrible injury like that.”

“I don’t think a day before we play them [is right] to talk about that again.

“He’s a Crystal Palace player and he’s been very important for them as long as he’s there.

“So we have to prepare for Crystal Palace, who are a very good team. I think they haven’t lost for 17 games in a row now and he’s part of that team.

“Difficult team to beat, but we are also a difficult team to beat – as we showed when we played against each other, because we’ve beaten them once 1-0 and twice it was a draw.

“We have more than enough options to replace, if needed, a player in the centre-back position.

“We have Virgil, Joe and Ibou, and other options if needed.”

“He’s able to play minutes again,”

“I still feel 90 is [too much]. It depends also on the pace and intensity of the game, but that might be a bit too much.

“Not only that, but also for the long term. You can give a player maybe one – I would call stupid – hit, to bring him to 90, then you brought him too far over the line.

“So I don’t think it’s smart to play him for 90 yet, but he’s further into his pre-season now.

“Normally after two or three weeks in pre-season players go to 60, 70 minutes and at some clubs they even bring them to 90, but if you look at our pre-season we mainly bring them to 60, 70 minutes then.”

“If ‘discipline’ means that I spoke to him, then it’s discipline; but I don’t think that is ‘discipline’,” he explained.

“So if discipline means a fine, he didn’t get one.

“It wasn’t very smart what he did, which he recognised himself immediately, straight away. He said sorry straight away to his teammates.

“He’s young, players of all ages do make mistakes and that’s what he did in this situation as well.

“But we all make mistakes and you’re allowed, at this club, to make a mistake without immediately getting fines or these kinds of things.

“He’s a fantastic human being. I think if you talk to all the staff members and you ask them the warmest and most polite people, I think he’s in every staff member’s top three.

“Even if he wasn’t a person like this he was able to make a mistake.

“It wasn’t smart. It didn’t hurt us Tuesday evening, it might hurt us a bit more tomorrow.

“The positive thing is that Federico Chiesa is showing himself at the moment, so it’s also a chance for him now to be on the bench and maybe get minutes with Hugo not being there.”

“The good thing is if you are a youngster playing at Liverpool there are players you are playing with who are still better than you are,”

“That, I think, helps them to stay grounded and to know there are still steps to make than if you are playing at maybe a club of a lower level.

“If you are as good as Rio then you would maybe belong straight away to the best players of the team, and that can lead to maybe a situation where he’s not as grounded as he should be.

“Here that’s not a problem at all. First of all because of who he is; he’s a player who constantly wants to improve.

“But if you train and play with other wingers like Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and Federico Chiesa, all the others, then I think he feels there is still a step to make, first of all to get to their level.

“Then if he is at their level, then it’s about being as consistent as these players are.

“That is the most difficult thing: becoming really good is something a lot of players maybe can do, but becoming consistently really good is why the top players stand out.”

We have looked into this process [of CL squad], some people do this. If I am informed correctly, if a player is out for 2 months or more, can replace him. So we're looking into it."

“Alisson is not part of the squad tomorrow and he’s not going to travel to Brazil as well for the national team. He will be out for Saturday [against Chelsea],” he explained.

“Hugo is going to train today again and let’s see where he is. The same can be said of Federico [Chiesa].

“We have to wait and see after the session.”

“It’s clear that he’s not here Saturday, not going to play for Brazil and I would be surprised if he would be there for the first game after the international break.

“It’s always difficult to say the amount of days and weeks, but for the upcoming games he will not be part of us or for the Brazil team.”

“I think we saw [on his competitive debut] against Southampton how well he’s adjusted,” he said of his new £29 million signing.

“We knew we were bringing in a very good goalkeeper, but when he plays his first game, that’s always the best way of seeing that he’s adjusted well or not.

“I think we saw in that game that he’s adjusted really well to our club. Which is not a surprise, because he’s a quality goalkeeper.

“Now he can do what Caoimhin had to do so many times in the past, replacing Alisson – hopefully like Caoimhin did so many times before.”

"I said to him the difficult thing is you will have your appearances but if you add minutes together it probably won't be more than two 90 minutes."

"That's what we inherited from his situation at Newcastle. We knew this before so it's not an excuse. Main thing is he has to adjust to his team-mates and they have to adjust to him."

"He had a great counter moment against Palace but the midfield didn't see it. These are the things that they have to work on, but that's been harder than last season because of Alexander, Alexis, Conor and playing Dom."

“I see the same [with Mo’s form now] as the second part of last season, when he scored 12 goals – five from a penalty, one from a set-piece, so six open-play goals,” Slot explained.

“He is part of a team that faces different opposition than the first half of last season.

“Compare how we’ve won the away game against Man United, where they tried to play out from the back and we took the ball three times off them, and you compare that to the way Man United played at Anfield where Onana only went long.

“That is one of the answers why it’s more difficult for us to score from open play.

“Mo was a part of this already, you could see in the second half of last season and the first part of this season.

“But now you’re focused on Mo, the next time you’re focused on Florian, then you’re focused on Cody.

“What I’m trying to say is that we don’t score as many open-play goals as we did in the first part of last season.

“This is something we work on very hard and the more we will play together in the new setup, the better that will go.

“But yeah, we still struggle a bit to find enough goals from open play, second part of last season and the first part of this season.”

“If you are losing a game of football, which we did against Galatasaray and against Palace, then it doesn’t help if you lose the ball a few times very easily,”

“He has been one of them – definitely not the only one.

“Because against Galatasaray I think apart from the penalty they got three or four moments from us losing a very simple ball without any pressure, which happened to him once in the Crystal Palace game and once against Galatasaray.

“So then if you then lose a game of football there’s so much focus on that moment, then all of a sudden 90 minutes have been ‘very, very, very poor’.

“Which is not the way I analyse a game, especially not afterwards when I have the time to analyse, watch it one more time and see what we did well and what we did wrong.

“But in the last two games it’s been obvious and clear that we made a few errors – not only him, also others – that we’re not used to.

“If you do things that people are not used to and you lose a game of football, then normally him, other ones, the manager, gets criticised.”

Ryan is completely fit.

“Although we still have to train twice, but if you ask me now he’s completely fit.

“We are in a good place with the Dutch national team, if Ronald Koeman can make a decision either to play Tijjani Reijnders or Ryan Gravenberch. So he played them both 45 minutes.”

“Ibou has come back to us, started his sessions again, and expected to train with us today,”

“He’s (Alisson) not training with us. He’s out.

“Like I always say it’s so difficult to say, because the end phase of rehab always can give you positives or negatives.

“But he will not play at the weekend and also not next week.”

“What do Florian Wirtz and Dominik Szoboszlai have to do with Cucurella attacking Mo Salah?”

“I think they’re both attacking midfielders and both are expected to defend, like all our 11 players are expected to defend.

“So yes, in this particular case, I heard the comments of Cucurella. I also saw how they scored for 2-1.

“But I could also show you five or six moments where Mo could have made the difference for us.

“And if that could have happened, we would have had the conversations like last season where he so many times made the difference for us.

“If that then doesn’t happen, you get probably comments like this.

“It’s always the balance between winger and full-backs that is quite [tough]. I want our full-backs to attack as well, so we have to find the right balance in that.

“We are conceding too many crosses compared to last season and this is something I’m aware of and we have to do better.”

“I think now he’s had his five, six weeks of pre-season,” Slot told reporters on Friday, with his No. 9 having played 90 minutes in both of Sweden’s qualifiers.

“Which is normal for every player, especially if you’ve been out for three or four months.

“So fitness-wise I think he’s now close to the level he should be. And now I think we can judge him in a fair way from now on.”

“One thing that is clear is that he missed out on a lot, unfortunately,”

“He went out immediately after we won the league and we were expecting him to be back from the start of pre-season, which he wasn’t.

“That led to the fact that he wasn’t able to play three times in a row, so he went in, out, in, out, 60 minutes, 45 minutes.

“And that’s never an ideal scenario for a player.

“But like all the others he’s a player that has experienced so many things in his career already, so he will be back at the level he wants and the level I want from him.”

“We were just talking about Macca, we were talking about Alex, Conor Bradley was the same in pre-season: those are players we need to bring back towards a lot of playing time,” the head coach continued.

“But you cannot go from no playing time at all to three times in a week. We had a few of them, which led to changes.

“But everywhere around the world where teams have to face schedules like this, they have more than 11 players to take on this schedule.

“The thing is if you rotate and win, you ‘did the smart thing’; if you rotate and you lose, you ‘have to play more with the same players’.

“This is how football works, but it’s clear that in general – especially for certain positions – it’s almost impossible to play them every single game.

“If you do, it’s the risk of a player getting injured.

“This has happened just before the international break with a few players and has happened during the international break with some players – not with ours, except for Alisson of course.

“So you have to find a balance in this, but I think the ones we have are now longer together.

“Yes, Alex is not the same player as Hugo, but they are both a No. 9 and they both know what to do in our system.

“It’s only something I like, that I have more than 11 players who can play a game of football, and that’s never the reason for us to drop points or to lose a game of football.”

“Jeremie is not in a good place. What I mean by that is he’s not going to play today, tomorrow or in the next week,” Slot’s update began.

“A hamstring injury, that’s going to take a while.

“Alex not too bad, question mark for the weekend and so let’s see where he is in then.

“That’s the same to be said about Ryan. He didn’t travel with us, so today we are in again. Let’s see where he is today.

“And Alisson is not in the squad tomorrow. That’s also going to take a little bit longer, yeah.”

I find it a bit funny, his second assist we call that assist and the 1-1 goal involvement against United isn't one for him which is more difficult to do than the 5-1.

His general game was something and the Liverpool fans liked. We've seen more of that already.

But if you lose a game, the focus is on the negative things but when you win a game 5-1 with two set-pieces people talk about your good attacks from open play.

We generated the same amount v United but the difference was we didn't concede from a set-piece and scored from two.

“I don’t know if it’s sharpness or not. It’s so difficult, I could come up with a few reasons which I’m not sure are the reasons,” said the Reds boss.

“In general in football players miss chances and Mo is a human being as well. We are not used to him missing chances, let alone a few in a row, but these things can happen.

“It’s easier to finish a chance if you are 3-1 up than if you are 1-0 down but maybe that is not true for him.

“But the main thing is Mo has always scored goals for our club and the last thing I worry about is Mo starting to score goals again.

“That is what he has done his whole life and that is what I expect him to do in the upcoming weeks and months for our club as well.”

I'm not surprised he touched the ball so often as we put him a bit lower against a team with a low block that didn't press the ball.

Curtis his playing time has gone up since I've been here. There's a reason for that, I like how he has progressed.

With him, as every player, he is in competition with five or six other good midfielders.

“It’s that he brings a lot of energy to the game, keeps going up and down, and he’s very good in defending the one-vs-one situations against his winger 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 strength 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 the better option.

“So again, an example of two players playing together who 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.”

Maybe keeper is exception but in general I don't think it's a healthy situation for a player to be on the bench for best part of a season.

One of the reasons why we thought it was best for Jarell Quansah and Harvey Elliott to find another club.

Caoimh has done really well. We are also facing Jordan Henderson, and in Holland they can't stop talking about how much Ajax are missing him.

“Ryan trained with us yesterday, the other two (Isak & Jones) didn’t yet,” he revealed.

“As I said many times, in the end phase of the injury things can slow down a bit or things can go faster. Let’s wait and see where they are.

“Ryan trained with us first time yesterday and will train with us today. Then we’re going to make the call if he is able to start, yes or no.

“The other two are probably 99.9 percent sure not in the squad for Saturday.”

I am happy with the team, the quality we have and convinced by the strategy and policy we have. But that makes it the issue, not all of them had a proper pre-season or have been injured, so when 3/4 injured you go back to 15 or 16. I am convinced 20 is enough but we are struggling to keep them fit for obvious reasons.

Alex came to us Sept 1 and it has been harder to keep them fit, so if a few aren't available it comes to the same players. Maybe last season we were lucky and now unlucky? But we've had a few away games with only a few days rest in between. No excuses, before people say...

We have to manage the situation, 3 games in 7 or 8 days. So nothing to do woth squad depth more just injuries and availability of players."

“That is the last question I was expecting!” Slot laughed.
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“I think my focus can be completely on getting Liverpool back to winning ways. That’s my first answer.

“The second answer is that contract talks – if they are even there – we never speak about this here.

“But let us first start to win again, that’s where my main focus is.”

“It does go against my beliefs, but I have won games in the past [by doing that],” he admitted.

“I’m talking about Man City away [when we won 2-0 last season], which went maybe against my beliefs, but it was necessary to play it over there like that in the second half.

“So I would be more than open to adapt in certain situations.

“But I don’t think the story is, at least in my opinion, that we concede chance after chance after chance and that we are too open. It’s absolutely not like this.

“Apart from Palace, because in the first half we could have been two or three-nil down, and maybe the Brentford game, I think all the other games we deserved much more than we got.

“And we hardly conceded a chance – even this week, with the team I put out which played for the first time together, I think they only conceded three big chances.

“Unfortunately all three went in. But that’s because they were ‘big’; they weren’t ‘chances’, they were ‘big chances’.

“I don’t see us conceding a lot of chances, so I don’t see a reason to change our playing style completely.

“But we need to do better in not conceding goals, that’s for sure.”

“He started three games in seven days, because he also played the game against Crystal Palace,” the head coach explained.

“I had to take him off at the end of the game [against Real], because I felt he was tired.

“But we have to wait and see. We had recovery the day after, they were day off yesterday and now two-day lead into City. So let’s see where he is today.”

“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,” said Slot.

“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.”

“He will train for the first time today with the team again, after being three weeks out.

“So I know that I said three weeks ago ‘his pre-season has ended, so now it’s time for us to see where he is’.

“But I have to come back to those words, because if you are three weeks only with the rehab team that doesn’t bring you back to the level he was three weeks ago.

“Although our rehab team has done an incredible job, you cannot compare rehab with games of football or training sessions with the team.

“As much as we try to replicate it, that’s simply not possible. So again, I have to say give him some time.”

I don't think focus should be on our three midfielders. True I couldn't play them together all the time because of injuries and other reasons.

It helps if team plays more and more together.

I can come up with all kinds of argument that leads to this performance, but that's boring. People will say I'm using the reasons as excuses for the losses.

I liked our performance against United more than against Villa but the result I liked more against Villa. We created more from open play.

"He has been outstanding the whole season.

Dominik has a lot of qualities, one of them is his work without the ball and his work without the ball I like every single game, but last two games was above probably his own standards."

“Alisson, for sure (will return after the break), and I expect Jeremie back after the international break as well,” Slot said, before jokingly adding, “because we play from November till March.

“This was one of the questions I didn’t expect, talking about signings in the winter,” Slot started.

“I think there are so many games to be played before that, and the position we are in, it’s the last thing that’s on my mind, maybe not for Richard [Hughes].

“But it’s the last thing on my mind, it’s not a topic at all for me at the moment.

“We have, in this moment of time, three centre-backs, with Joe Gomez included of course.

“Maybe Ryan [Gravenberch] and Watta (Endo) can play in that position, so maybe you are not aware of it, but we have other positions at the moment which are a bit more of an issue.”

“I think we’re always judged sometimes fair, sometimes unfair. I saw the (Robertson) interview live, and I know that it is an issue for us, which is completely normal,” Slot said.

“But then at these moments of time, I always think about how much I feel for his wife and his children, because that’s so, so, so, so much harder for them than it is for us.

“But that we miss the player and the person, that is completely clear.

“Maybe it tells you even more now we play Nottingham Forest. Last season we were 1-0 down at Forest and it only took him one minute to score the equaliser.

“So now I’m talking about the player that we miss. This season we haven’t managed to come back as many times as last season after being a goal down, and he definitely played his part last season.

“But we also miss him as a person, that is completely clear. But again, his wife and children will miss him so much more, and his parents as well.”

“I think it’s good to remember him every time possible, because of the person and player he was.

“But it’s impossible to measure what it does to the players and then to measure what it does for our results.

“The last thing I will do is to use it as an excuse, because I simply don’t know.

“What I do know is what we do miss the player, that’s 100 percent sure, and we also miss the person, but I cannot measure what impact that has on our performances, let alone on our results.

“That’s impossible for me to say. We will never use it as an excuse, because that doesn’t feel right.”

“Conor Bradley is not able to play and Florian Wirtz is unable to play. That’s far from ideal.”

On their issues, he explained: “Both are muscle issues. I don’t expect Conor to be part of the upcoming 22 days, maybe at the end, unless a miracle happens, which I don’t expect.

“Florian shouldn’t be that long.

Jeremie is out just as long, won't be available in the next few weeks.

Dominik is playing very well in all positions.

Joe Gomez has played two times 90 minutes in 2025 so if we want to keep him available longer it's maybe a risk to play him seven times in 22 days. He missed training yesterday but we are expecting him to train today.

Maybe one or two players have to play in positions they normally won't do.”

We did talk about it, we spoke to Milos as well. It was a big disappointment being so close to play-off games and then going out in extra time of extra time which was fair as there were two subs in that time.

It's really hard that you concede especially because in the other side you see Robbo what it means when you do qualify when you haven't for so long.

“I haven’t heard that (Konate’s contract comments), but yeah, my answer would probably be the one you expect.

“Do I have to say it, or do you say it?”