In Matchweek 17 of the Premier League, Liverpool claimed a 2-1 away win over Tottenham Hotspur. Liverpool manager Arne Slot attended the post-match press conference following his side’s 2-1 victory over Tottenham Hotspur.
On the Severity of Alexander Isak’s Injury
Isak’s injury—how serious is it?
I don’t have any updates on him right now. But if a player gets injured after scoring and cannot return to the pitch, meaning he doesn’t even try to play on, just like Connor Bradley did, and still can’t continue, then I have to substitute him.
If a player doesn’t even attempt to carry on, it’s usually not a good sign, but I can’t reveal any more details. That’s just my gut feeling, but… I don’t have any medical advice on this matter.
On Whether Isak Had Any Intuition About His Injury
Didn’t he have any gut feeling about his injury himself?
I haven’t talked to him about it yet. But it was great that he scored that goal—a beautiful finish, with a lovely assist from Florian Wirtz. I said last week that the players are improving, and our team is progressing as well.
We weren’t perfect today, especially in the last ten minutes. But at the same time, we got three points, and I can see the team moving in the direction I want.
On the Disappointment of Losing Isak Amid His Partnership with Wirtz
Arne, losing Alex must be all the more frustrating because you were probably looking forward to seeing him link up with Florian and repay the favour with their cooperation.
Yes, we were really looking forward to seeing that combination—a brilliant finish and a great pass. But we can’t be too pessimistic right now. We don’t know the full extent of his injury yet, so we’re hoping he can… he can come back to us as soon as possible. But it’s hard to say at the moment.
On the Overall Reaction to the Victory and the Cost of the Win
What’s the general reaction to tonight’s result? It was obviously a hard-fought win, but it seems to have come at a cost—not just Alex, but Jeremy might also have picked up a knock?
No, Jeremy Frimpong is perfectly fine. Substituting him was a simple decision. I didn’t want to be down to ten men for 30 seconds of the game. I think this is the only country where players get a 30-second break after an injury, and even 45 seconds for head injuries. So I’ve adjusted to that. I knew there wasn’t much time left in the game, and I felt we were struggling even with the extra man advantage.
So if he went down, we’d be playing 10 vs 10 for half a minute, which would be manageable, and then we brought Federico on. So he’s okay. But for Alex and Connor (Isak and Bradley), we’ll have to wait and see.
And yes, you saw our substitutes’ bench today, but this isn’t the first time we’ve been in this situation in recent weeks. Yet we’re still picking up points, and that’s the most important thing. In England, we’re not the only team dealing with injuries at this stage of the season—with so many games to play, it’s normal for teams to have injury problems during this period.
On Liverpool’s Current Situation and Performance Over Recent Weeks
Arne, after all these difficulties, you’re almost back in the top four again. How do you assess your current position and the team’s performance over the past few weeks?
Of course, we’re satisfied with this. But at the start of the season, when we were in the top four, I wasn’t particularly excited or happy. We always strive for the best results. We had a good start, but then a series of results disappointed us. But you’re right—now we’re probably level on points and joint fourth, I’m not sure.
But don’t forget that in the Champions League, we drew a very tough group, but we’ve performed quite well. I’ve seen many teams barely pick up any points, and we haven’t even played against them yet. I don’t think the situation is as bad as people are saying. But it’s undeniable that we’re definitely not at our best yet.
We made a lot of changes in the summer, so we knew it would take time. Maybe because we won the first five or six games, everyone thought everything would go smoothly. But as a club—including the owners, Richard, Michael, and all the other staff—we knew that changes would also bring… different results.
(Dutch journalist asks a question, then Slot apologises for not understanding the English translation)
No, absolutely. This is always tricky. If I try to explain why it’s so difficult, people will tell me afterwards that I’ve revealed too much to our future opponents. The tactics of Newcastle and Tottenham Hotspur are obvious, but maybe I shouldn’t say that out loud.
But at the same time, what frustrated me the most was when we had possession—because from the 9 minutes of stoppage time (it ended up being 10 minutes, yes, 10 minutes this time), I think they enjoyed as much as 95% possession. So every time we got the ball, we either booted it away, gave it away directly, or incredibly, we just couldn’t keep hold of it for longer.
So yes, then you have to defend for 8 and a half minutes, or 9 minutes, 9 and a half minutes—the last one. They had a player sent off, and I thought it would be easier, but it wasn’t.
Of course, they still had free kicks, and I know how special a player Pedro Porro is, how good his free kicks are. His earlier corner kick proved that, and several subsequent corners almost led to goals.
So I thought, let’s just defend this free kick first. Honestly, I felt like they only had nine men on the pitch, and we should be able to… keep them out. But it felt like we were the ones with nine men and they had eleven, because they kept attacking wave after wave without scoring.
I didn’t see the second foul that led to the second yellow card. I thought someone in our team had been booked, and I was like, why would Konaté get a yellow card for that? But Konaté wasn’t even booked at that time. Then I saw one of their players get a yellow card, so I don’t know what happened, why he got a second yellow.
The first foul was by Xavi Simons. I don’t think it was intentional, but if you look at the replay, he made contact with our player from behind, so it was definitely a foul.
There have been several occasions this season where other teams have committed similar fouls against us, but no red cards were given. But this time, it was. And I’ve seen many such fouls that deserve a red card.
However, I’ve also seen several instances this season where other teams committed the same type of foul against us but avoided red cards. So you always have to rely to some extent on the VAR decisions and the referee’s final call.
