"It's up to them if they want to sign" ✍️ | Arne Slot on Salah, Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold

[Music] Annette nice to speak to you I mean I'm sure you're well aware and you get asked a lot that Jen Klo was the the former manager at Liverpool but the fact that he was here for eight years and the way that team played and for the players the the system is so ingrained in them how much of a challenge has that been for you in the preseason to get your ideas across maybe in preseason not that difficult because the ones that were there uh were not the ones were youan worked with for so many years uh and I think it helped that we had some good results over there uh players and also people around us were positive about the way we played then when the other ones came back had quite a long uh days off they really bought into it immediately because they also understood in two weeks time we have to play IP switch so um but I think one of the main things why if they buy in which is I believe they do but uh uh why they do is that that the differences are not that big so there are only small differences between youan and me and and the the general idea of how we want to play football is I think quite similar what would you class as the biggest difference then between your your type of football and Jens if if there is any yeah I would prefer not to come up with it myself because now people are going to emphasize on it but I think um although it's difficult because I saw many Liverpool games we didn't see all of them but in the way I looked at it was that that they didn't they used every moment they could to play the ball in behind or uh or deep that meant that the game was always also sometimes a bit open especially in the last period of yugan and um sometimes I tell them okay get a better judgment in risk and reward so if you can put someone in front of the goalkeeper please try to do so if not it's also a good idea sometimes to keep the ball um but I think if jugan was in the room now he would have told me told us yeah I wanted to keep the ball once in a while as well but uh um in general I see this still that some players are always Mo too many times in my opinion try to play the difficult ball which doesn't get the reward that for the risk they take in this ball and would you help was it speaking to J and I think you mentioned that you spoke to him obviously before he left and the fact that You' also looked at back a lot at a lot of his training sessions as well I think both helped although the best uh way to get to know the players is when you work with them yourself and uh you do your own training sessions and um but it helped coming in here to understand what what it means to the fans uh how his relationship was with the players and uh the way he worked over here and um it's always nice if it's uran or whatever manager is always nice to see how other managers work what kind of exercises they do if you can steal something from that and um so that was also one of the reasons why I I watched all these training sessions back not with the idea to getting to know the players better but more okay what kind of sessions have they done in the past over we go back to last week away dip switch I mean when you look back at the game certainly that first half was that shock a surprise the atmosphere the quality the energy from it switching was that something that maybe you don't see so much in the the other the no that intensity and that atmosphere you you mostly saw in our own stadium in at finor in the K especially the atmosphere um that we were facing this intensity that was not a surprise for me I think if you play a a newly promoted team and I think I'm correct they promoted two times in a row so there's only positive energy in and around that team uh so it was maybe a difficult moment to play them because I expect maybe in 10 games if they've lost a few more times then the energy of the whole stadium is also different but to play them now you could expect them to be on all on top of it and uh we were ready for that because we didn't concede anything but we were not ready to create chances and that is something we have to uh do much much much better uh that if that intensity comes if they are playing us one for one all over the pitch we with the quality we have should be able to create a few chances that didn't happen in the first half fortunately we made that up in the second half a lot because then we arrived many many times in their 18 Yard Box before we got to the second half you made a change of Hal time there's been a little bit of chat about that since but is that something we should get used to you as as a manager that you if you see a problem on the pitch you will be decisive you will make a change at halftime or maybe at times even before the break I don't think in my manager career I did it before the break uh it's not to say it can never happen it's not to say that that this is something that's going to be happening all the time that I make a substitution at half time in this moment I think I've said it in a press conference this morning as well at least that's what I thought I said and I think I said it as well that jel didn't lose all his jewels but he lost a few important ones and unfortunately for him he lost a really important one just before halftime and I said that the whole team lost too many jewels but um but in my opinion their only threat in that game was was the long ball towards DB and um and if you then have also IU konate on the bench then uh Jerell is able to do that because he did in preseason really well against United against Arsenal but sometimes on a day um it doesn't work out for you yeah then I there are too many good players on the bench not to use them so I used them and um we were lucky that the second half was much better but that had not so much to do with with me taking jell off that had a lot to do with the other 10 working a bit harder than they did the first half so I'm not sure if you've seen it but on Monday Night Football we we have a show we try and look at the the tactics certainly of a of a new manager into a into the Premier League and and we we analyzed and looked at your setup in the buildup with the back four uh in the Deep buildup also on the halfway line where at times the fullbacks are quite narrow yeah I mean is can you give us any insight into the thinking behind that I heard the what you were talking about so I was well informed before I came here uh the idea of the fullbacks not being that wide and it depends also what the Press what the other teams will give us but if if the fullbacks are all down the line and you play the fullback then he's very far away from some other players um and it takes really long to get the ball over there so if you are playing closer to uh to each other then the ball goes faster from one foot to another and that gives less time to the opponent to defend um the moment you showed or was talking were you guys spoken about that was not a good moment where he did so so we were expecting them to to press with nine and then the 11 would follow to the other Center back then to show yourself in the position where Robertson showed himself was a real good idea because the 2V1 is on the opposite sides and you're closer to that situation that is the downside of working so short with them now they press nine and 10 then is not a good idea idea to position yourself over there um so this this was not a perfect example of how it should be he used it in the wrong moment I would say but the ideas of fullbacks or players playing close together is to have short passes which give limited time to the other team to defend and you can switch play faster of course than being receiving the ball all the way down the line we noticed in the second half that they looked a bit wider certainly when you look at at the first goal Andy Rob was on on the uh on the by on the touch line and Trent wasn't really too wide but was that something you spoke to about being wide in the second half because of the way you switch press and and at times it was manto man but also at times it was 4 to4 there was four attackers really up against your back four I think uh Trent has been used in the past and we will use him also during this season a lot on the inside but the way they pressed uh was with nine and 10 and they're 11 their their their left Winger went all the way to Ryan Graber and when we play Trent then the left midfielder the number eight stepped out towards him um then it's not a smart idea to play on the inside because then the distance is really short between the midfielder and Trent so then it's a smarter idea to stay wider because then the distance for him to run is longer creates more time for Trent so we did spoke at halime that he should be wider to make the distance between the one who wanted to press him longer which creates more time for him and we want to have him as much as we can on the ball because because you know better than me uh although I know quite well already uh how special he is when he when he has the ball you said how well Trent performed with the ball on uh on Saturday obviously moah was fantastic as well got the goal you know Vil as well as myself so I mean what would your role be in terms of helping them sign a contract and you know to stay at the club in the future obviously the the hierarchy will deal with the the money side I'm sure yeah the only I have to do what I do with all of them is getting and bringing the best out of them and uh it we bring the best out of when they perform really well um yeah then it's up to them if they want to sign it's up to the club and us if we give them a new contract uh but the best thing for all of them is if if you're out of contract or not is get the best performances possible and and there is where I should and will help them together with my staff um to to bring out the the best out of them until now it's nothing been but positive Mo came back really strong in terms of physique fil came back really strong Trend did the same um and they brought and and they brought in some good performances against ipswitch which was only the first game like all the others but um trying to get the best out of them and then um my main focus is on brenford and not on on contract extensions um but um we will see how it works out okay you mentioned brenford and it's your first competitive game at anfield I just wanted to ask you how important you feel the the anfield factor and the atmosphere at anfield will help the success of your teams because you had great success at final and that was probably helped by the the atmosphere in that de K I mean is is that going to be a real partnership going forward in helping your teams get to where you want to yeah I think that's one of the things you want as a manager that the fans love to see your team play and um if if the fans see that we play a style that they like to see then they will be much more positive and if they are really positive that will help the team a lot of course as well but normally at most clubs and and you know better than me if Liverpool is an exception to this but normally it starts off with the players putting in a lot of work rate and being real intense and then the fans go behind it some some sometimes you see the opposite way uh that it starts with the fans and then the players come uh how is that at Liverpool in your opinion I think a bit of both I think uh on the big European nights the the supporters will will get the uh we'll get the players going I think week in week out in the Premier League it maybe flips a little bit where maybe it's down to uh to the players but I think for your first game the fans will do the job I'm I'm hoping and expecting so uh because of course if you come here people talk a lot about the fans and how special it is so um really looking forward to it I said it in my press conference if I look at the epwi fans how loud they were with 30,000 than with us having 60 it's a big challenge to be even louder than them so let's hope that that will work out but again then we need to show up from the start on Sunday as well better than we did the first half against if switch so it's brenford on Sunday they're a team who have been in the Premier League now a few seasons came into the Premier League with maybe a direct style of play Maybe evolv slightly in in the last few years is what you see as the the strengths or maybe weaknesses or problems they can give you I think one of the strengths they have is that they work for a long time together with the same manager so they can play different systems which is something is really hard because before you get one system in really well that takes you a lot of time so only manag that are there for a long time working with a team can play different system this what they what they can what they did in last week against Crystal Palace as well so it's always a bit more difficult to prepare your team if you can expect uh if you might might face two different systems uh but apart from that I think uh um I haven't seen them played four or five years ago but what I see now is that they play uh uh real good football uh a good idea uh very good structure um good uh um combination so what I mean with that is if the right fullback has the ball the striker knows when to show himself so connection that's the word I wanted to find connection are really good and I think that's what you see if a team plays longer together especially with the same manager and that's what happens there so um winning against Crystal Palace who had such a strong uh end of the season is a is a very good result for them to start with well Thomas Frank the manager he joined us on the the Monday Night Football last season and he he told us that he giv us a bit of insight that normally when they play away from home against one of the big teams they play back three so I'm trying to give you that little bit of nugget of advice and uh me already well Anna thank you for inviting me in and uh I want to wish you all the best and hopefully it goes well not just on Sunday but in all your time at Liverpool