Q&AArne Slot press conference: Isak fitness, Ekitike, Crystal Palace trip and more

The Liverpool head coach spoke to reporters in the build-up to his side's visit to Crystal Palace in the Premier League.

In addition to providing an injury update on Giovanni Leoni, Slot talked about the fitness of Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Saturday's Selhurst Park encounter and more.

See what the Dutchman had to say below...

On whether Isak is ready to start against Palace...

Yeah, he's able to make minutes again. I still feel 90 – [it] depends also on the pace and the intensity of the game – might be a bit too much. But not only that, also for the long term. So you can maybe give one, I would call, stupid hit to bring him to 90 and then you brought him too far over the line. So, I don't think it's smart to play him 90 yet. But he's further into his pre-season now and normally after two or three weeks in pre-season players go to 60, 70 minutes, and in some clubs they even bring them to 90. But if you look at our pre-season, we mainly bring them to 60 to 70 minutes then.

On the red card Ekitike received in midweek...

No, if disciplined means that I spoke to him then it's disciplined – but I don't think that is disciplined. Disciplined means a fine – and that he didn't get. So, it wasn't very smart what he did, what he recognised himself immediately straight away, so 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 fined or these kind of things.

He's a fantastic human being. I think if you talk to all the staff members and you would ask them a top three of the warmest persons and the most polite persons, I think he's in every staff member's top three. So even if he wasn't a person like this, he was able to make a mistake. But it wasn't smart. It didn't hurt us [on] 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 playing minutes with Hugo not being there.

• Confirmed: Chiesa added to Liverpool's Champions League squad

On Palace's biggest threat...

Discipline. They have an enormous discipline defensively, 10 outfield players plus a goalkeeper that work so hard to prevent the other team from scoring. We saw this also in the Community Shield – even in the moments when we were up, they could still be very disciplined and calm in their own half, in their mid-to-low block. We saw this during the week when we played Southampton, who were disciplined against us, how hard it is to play through them. Apart from that – but that's for every team in the Premier League – they have some individual quality, some individual players who are a big threat offensively.

[Jean-Philippe] Mateta is one of them, [Ismaila] Sarr, who wasn't available last week but might be available this week, again was really good against us in the Community Shield, two midfielders that know how to play and good centre-backs, good wing-backs. So, a good team but that is what, I would say, every Premier League team has. But what maybe stands out for me with them is their discipline and their defensive work.

On whether he has been 'surprised' by Liverpool's start to the season...

Surprised is maybe a bit too strong to say, but if you would have asked me that after playing Newcastle away, Arsenal at home and all these difficult games we had that we would have the maximum result, I would sign for that straight away, which is normal. But if you look at the games, most of them were all quite close.

We might have been a bit lucky as well to get the maximum points, although I was just saying about the work-rate of Palace, we work incredibly hard as well. And if you work as hard as we do, you give yourself the chance maybe to be a bit lucky if you would call it luck then. I don't think we stole a win, it wasn't as if we totally [did] not deserve it, but there were games that a draw would have maybe been more fair. Looking at the schedule we had, I'm more than pleased that we have the maximum points.

On Rio Ngumoha signing his first professional contract with the club…

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 to stay grounded and to know there are still steps to make. If you are playing at maybe a club of a lower level and you are as good as Rio, you 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.

But here that's not a problem at all. First of all, because of who he is – he's a player that constantly wants to improve. But if you train and play with other wingers like Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah, Federico Chiesa and all the others, then I think he feels there's still a step to make. First of all to get to their level and if he is at their level then it's about being as consistent as these players are. That is the most difficult thing. To become really good is something a lot of players maybe can do, but to become consistently really good is why the top players stand out.