In the 5th round of the Champions League group stage, Liverpool 1-4 PSV Eindhoven at Anfield. Liverpool manager Arne Slot attended the pre-match press conference ahead of the game against West Ham United.
I want to ask about Wirtz’s injury—will he be available this weekend? And any other players?
Alisson has trained with the team, and we hope and expect him to make a timely return.
Florian will undergo his final rehabilitation session tomorrow; if everything goes well, he will be able to train on Saturday.
Hugo had a recovery session today, but it’s not expected to be a major issue. Let’s wait and see—games are coming thick and fast, but this shouldn’t be a problem.
What do you think of West Ham, considering Nuno is the manager who beat you with Nottingham Forest last season…
Nuno is having an impact on the team’s results. He coached Nottingham Forest in England and now West Ham, achieving impressive results, proving he’s a tough opponent.
It’s very difficult to beat West Ham now, so we must be prepared for the challenge. For them, the situation is completely different from when we faced West Ham three or four months ago.
Over the past 3 games, Liverpool’s xG is 6.59, while your opponents’ total is 5.39—what do you make of this data?
Frustrating (he smiled bitterly).
I’m frustrated by it. xG doesn’t always reflect the real situation. So when do you get those chances? When you concede goals, your defense always becomes more open. Against Villa and Real Madrid, we barely gave our opponents any chances, but when we fall behind, opportunities keep coming for them.
We haven’t rewarded ourselves when we played well, and this is clearly reflected in the xG data—it’s ridiculous.
You can see many games where the xG is not good, but you score 3-4 goals. As for last night… I don’t need xG data at all to know we missed a lot of chances.
Jones said after the game yesterday… what do you think of his comments?
Jones: The team’s performance is unacceptable; I can’t even find the right words to describe it.You think I heard what he said, but I didn’t… because I was doing various interviews.
So do you know what he said?
Did he say we need to fight like dogs? That’s good—bring that spirit to the game, which is exactly what the players are striving for. Yesterday, many players set personal bests and refreshed their stats, so the players are working hard. My minimum expectation is that we give it our all.
How do you think the team can regain confidence?
I don’t think we lacked confidence at the start of the game, even after going 1-0 down yesterday. But after the fourth or fifth mistake, I saw a difficult 5 to 10 minutes. Even when the score was 2-1, the players were disappointed, but we created enough chances to equalize at 2-2.
But when we went 1-3 down, I could see the players were hit, and their fighting spirit obviously dropped.
Do you think the message you’re giving the players is clear?
Did my message get through? It’s hard to convey when you’re 1-3 down, but before the game and at halftime, I showed how we can create chances—many ideas were reflected in the tactical discussions, but they couldn’t be converted into goals.
It’s difficult for all of us, but the message was very clear—how we can create chances. That’s obvious.
I want to ask about Gomez’s situation—could he start?
He’s in good form; he could have played a few minutes yesterday, but when we were 1-2 down, I preferred to make more attacking substitutions. As for Gomez, it’s absolutely possible for him to start.
Konaté didn’t train for two days before the game and wasn’t in the best condition, so starting him was a risk. I decided to start him, but didn’t let him play the full 90 minutes. No, no, anyway, you know what I mean.
Did you sleep well last night?
What do you think?
Probably not great.Hmm. I slept a few hours, but there was definitely a lot on my mind. If we win, I definitely can’t sleep—adrenaline rushing, all kinds of thoughts popping up—but I got enough sleep.
Bos said after the game he wanted to have a drink with you—did you?
I didn’t have a drink with Peter Bos because I had a lot of media work to do. I asked him, but it was too late, so I’ll send him a message to congratulate him.
Do you think you’ll seek advice from Bos?
I could ask many people for advice, but within this club, there are many people I can turn to for suggestions.
Do you think the players listened to and implemented your halftime adjustments?
We always remember the last two games most—for example, the second half against Manchester City was much better. Back in September against Crystal Palace, the second half was also much better than the first (he emphasized “much” repeatedly).
So every defeat has a different scenario; it’s just that the second halves of the last two games haven’t been good. As I said, in my opinion, the players were still fighting when we were 1-2 down, so we created enough chances.
Gakpo’s chance is usually one he scores, but unfortunately we didn’t take it. Then after going 1-3 down, obviously the fighting spirit wasn’t up to our usual standards.
Do you think Liverpool needs to change?
I think I’ll consider all factors, but so far, my decisions have been different. However, other players have also shown some quality in training and work hard every day.
Of course, rotation is an art—some people think I should make more changes, but I already made some adjustments and we lost a game (League Cup against Crystal Palace).
So of course, I’ve considered many factors, but for now, it remains as it is.
