Arne Slot spoke to the media at Anfield on Monday ahead of the Champions League last-16 second leg against Paris Saint-Germain.
Liverpool holds a one-goal lead from the first leg but Slot said the team will need to play better at home if it's to progress, although the Dutchman dismissed suggestions his side were poor last week at the Parc des Princes.
He also discussed PSG’s comments since the first leg, the quality of opposition the Reds will face on Tuesday, Cody Gakpo’s fitness and Liverpool’s chances of progressing to the quarter-finals. We’ve picked out the main answers from Slot’s pre-match press conference.
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On Luis Enrique comments that the winner will get to the final: I think after this game there is still a long way to go to the final and we already know which teams we can face Aston Villa or Club Brugge and then probably Arsenal or Real [Madrid] or Atletico Madrid, so all very good teams. But I do agree with Luis Enrique that both we and PSG are teams, along with three or four others, that are good enough to reach the final, but because it is only two games luck and bad luck can be decisive as well, but both teams are good enough to reach the final, let's put it that way.”
On PSG quality: “I wasn’t surprised at all at their performance. They have impressed me a lot. Before we played that game, I watched many games of them because we had a bit more time than normal and I was very impressed by the intensity, the team cohesion and the rotations in the midfield. They are such a complete team, such a well managed team and we experienced that last Wednesday. Some people said we played poorly, I don’t agree. I think they played tremendously well. I don’t think we have played a team this season who combined that much quality with intensity. But I do think we can play better. I am not saying we were poor or not good at all, but we are a better team than we were last week and that is something we have to prove tomorrow with the help of our fans.”
On reports PSG were surprised at Liverpool’s levels: “ I think what you mean is some of them [PSG players] have [reportedly] said Arsenal and Bayern Munich were better than us, which is what I have heard. And I think what that has to do with is PSG have improved in those months and they played away at Arsenal and Bayern in these two games. And I saw both of those games and they have improved and changed. They have improved, they have changed. At Arsenal away they were much lower [defensively] and now they take the risk and press all over the pitch and make it one-v-one constantly. and it is up to them how they felt. I cannot influence what they felt and I don’t even know if it is true or not but I am hoping they have a different opinion after tomorrow night.”
On having to play best performance of the season: “Yeah I think so because this is the most complete team we have played so far. What I mean by complete is of course we have faced Arsenal and Manchester City and it is not that there are big differences or margins but the quality and intensity they played at. Let's be honest here, we are talking about probably the richest club or maybe there is one richer club that are bit further ahead but they have so much quality and a great, great manager, because he let's the team play in a way that is not easy and he brings the best out of them. He brings an incredible work rate to the team, so we have to be at our best tomorrow. But, for example, we didn’t have ball possession at all, City away - the other richest club in the world with PSG - and at home we had a completely different performance against City than we had away.”
On extra motivation from PSG comments: “I don’t know. I don't think anyone needs motivation, not their players, not our players, if you play at Anfield in the knockout stages. Two of the better teams in Europe, I think there are three, four or five incredible teams in Europe at the moment. Paris Saint-Germain is one of them and we are one of them. I don’t think anyone needs any kind of motivation, not our fans, not our players, their players or the staff. We are all looking forward to a game like this and need to be at our best if you play the best.”
On needing more possession: “Of course, we are hoping to have more of the ball then last week but if you saw them playing, they are very intense and that led to them having few chance because they took the ball away from us when we had build-up and that led to a few chances. But in 87th minute, when the ball was with Alisson, they moved forward with a lot of players, we played it long and they were open and we score our goal. When I watched the game back, I saw many moments that if a few of our players could have done better, that could have led to us creating chances. I also know from my experience, because normally my team is doing what PSG is going, the other manager always says we could have done better in these transition moments. But the thing is, they did exhaust us a bit by constantly pressing us and if you get the ball, sometimes you’re a bit too tired to make the perfect execution. That’s why it would be useful for us to have the ball a bit more and then the game hopefully opens up a bit more. We can do better than last week but I don’t agree with people who said we had a poor performance.”
On first-leg lead: “Is there a difference? No. We try to play every game, try to win. That’s how we played last week. It wasn’t our intention to be so low every time. We wanted to have a different game than we played over there but sometimes the other team, with the help of their fans… we all saw what happened. Tomorrow, we want to play a different game, but our intentions are always the same and we won’t go for a draw. We just want to win every single game and have the ball as much as we can. At City away that wasn’t the situation and at Paris Saint-Germain. We do take confidence from our home game against City where we did have the ball much more. It was more of an equal game than the away game at City. Everyone is writing about 27 shots and that is also what I saw but if you put the 27 shots in a row it’s not that they were all amazing saves at Alisson. He had two or three incredible saves but most of theirs were from outside the 18-yard box.”
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On dreaming of a magic week: “Dreaming? No, in a week like this I do not dream at all. I just know I have to work really hard to prepare the team in the best possible way. That is what I try to do in every single game. If you have a game like we did last week, you feel like, ‘Can I even go to sleep at all? Or do I have to watch even more?’. So no, I do not dream at all at the moment about this week. We are just focused on what we have to do tomorrow. It started very well in terms of beating Southampton. Now we are just looking forward to tomorrow, everyone looks forward to a game of football like this. At Anfield, two great teams playing against each other.
On Gakpo availability: “ Yeah he will be in the squad. He trained today for the first time.”
On 50/50 game: “Yeah maybe I do. The result was ours, the performance was for them. I think both teams have showed in the last 15-20 games that they can score goals from everywhere. Yes, we are 1-0 up and that gives us confidence where it will give them confidence the way they have played and their performance. Yeah maybe 50/50 is a fair way of looking at it.”
