NewsArne Slot press conference: 'Massive game' at Wolves, late goals and Liverpool's approach

The Reds make a second trip of the week to Molineux in the fifth round, having suffered a late defeat when the sides met in the Premier League on Tuesday night.

A range of questions were put to Slot when he held his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning – read a summary below.

• Florian Wirtz injury update

On conceding late goals and how that can be managed…

It's a real concern if you lose, and if you lose many times in the same manner it's even more a concern. But the way we concede goals in these last minutes are not always similar. Sometimes it's a set-piece, now and against Fulham it was a shot from outside the box. Those are not big chances you gave away. So, you always try to prevent the other team from getting big chances. This is what we do in general quite well. But unfortunately for us, it has led to two goals conceded [on Tuesday].

Is it our approach? Not too sure about that because, yes, we want to win that game and I think that's quite normal. If you're Liverpool, you play away at Wolves, you just scored the 1-1, you're trying to win the game. But it isn't as if we bring Virgil [van Dijk] or Ibou [Konate] forward. We just still play in this situation in our own formation. Which in the past sometimes we did add an attacker instead of a defender, but recently when we conceded we didn't do that.

On the importance of this game 'in the context of the season now' and with the Champions League coming up on Tuesday…

We always found every game we play very important and we always find every trophy we can win very important. So, last season we tried to win four and this season we tried to win four as well. But two are not possible anymore, the Premier League and the League Cup. So the other two we are in, we try to win it, as we've always tried at this club. And of course for us qualification for the Champions League is massive, as we all know. But that's not on the line tomorrow. Tomorrow the FA Cup is on the line and that's a massive game for us.

On Liverpool's reaction after going behind at Wolves on Tuesday and 'why you couldn't take that approach earlier in the game'…

It's not the perfect word to use because it's not what I feel, but I cannot come up with another one: I'm almost annoyed if you say 'that approach'. Because the approach is not different, the approach is we want to have the ball as much as possible, and we want to have it back as soon as possible. So, we always press high and when we have the ball we try to attack. Then, that in the final part when we have the ball in the same position it leads to chances as it didn't happen in the first 70 or 80 minutes, that is something I see as well. But that's not down to approach. Or maybe we don't understand each other exactly when you mean 'approach'.

But we don't approach the game by saying, 'OK, in the first 70 minutes, we don't want to have the ball or we don't want to attack.' No, we do. That it doesn't lead to anything, that we completely agree on. But that might also be due to the fact that an opponent is fitter in the start of the game than in the end. Maybe, I don't know, that they became a bit more like, 'Oh, we're 1-0 up so let's be even more defensive, let's give them a bit of more space.' Or there's more urgency with us. But it's never the approach. We always start the game in the same way and we play it in the same way.

But that there is a difference between the last 10 minutes in chance creation compared to the first 80, that's clear. There's no difference in the approach. If you mean that I approach it like, 'OK, let's stay calm and let's wait, wait, wait.' No, no, no. 'Attack as much as you can.' That's also what you see in the game. We bring enough players forward, but that we're not able from all the ball possession to create a lot of chances, that's not something new to me. That has happened throughout the whole season.

On 'options he has to change it up' on Friday…

We have a few, but we don't have 11, as you know. But we do have a few options. I always have options to bring in and players you can bring in, you can also let them start. So we do have a few options. But again, not for the first time this season that three days after a game we've again dropped points. And that is something I've seen us doing quite a lot this season. And now it's again three days after the last one. So, we have to be better than we were the last time we played Wolves.

On saying in midweek he told the players they could move the ball quicker from side to side, and if he has to reinforce that message…

But my job is so much easier than theirs because I'm standing there on the sides and I can see everything, and they are in full action and the distances from the team are really small. So, really tight areas. And for me to zoom out and see it and then walk to my iPad and see it even better, then showing it at half-time, 'OK, boys, there is more space than you think to play it from side to side.' That's easier said than done. But don't think that before the game I tell them, 'Let's stay as long as we can on the same side. Let's try to stay as long over there. And please, Virgil, Ibou, never play a ball forward, just play it as long as you can towards each other.' No, that would be as ridiculous as we both know it is.

But sometimes it is showing them. But maybe showing them has no influence at all, it's just more that after 45 minutes the other team gets a bit more tired. So maybe the No.9 doesn't close down the ball towards the midfield anymore, so you can switch it through the midfield where in the first 45 minutes he does and then you need to go around. And if you have to go around by your centre-backs, it always takes longer to be on the opposite side than when you can go through. And that sometimes has to do with the fact that if players get tired, they don't close gaps as much anymore as they do in the first half, and sometimes it just needs another emphasis on it to show.

But I'm not a tactical genius if I tell them to go faster from side to side, everyone can tell this to them. And that's what we say before the game and after the game. But you play against an opponent as well that tries to prevent you from playing the ball from side to side.

On if 'knowing what you know now, you would have made different decisions about the composition of the squad coming into the season or you have been unlucky with injuries and the timing, and adaptation of certain players'...

Yeah, you've already given the answer to me. I'm so happy what we've done last summer. We signed such great players. But some of them needed some time to adapt and some of them have mainly been injured. That's not something you can predict. Yeah, adaptation you can predict because that's what we knew. But that some signings and some others got some long-term injuries, that's not something you can predict. But it's the model we are having that we are not having 25 players over here. We have a different model over here. And then it hurts even more if you have three or four long-term injuries and, at the moment, even more than that.