Round-upArne Slot press conference: Salah form, Alisson importance, West Ham and Ngumoha
The Liverpool head coach spoke to reporters about a number of topics during the briefing at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning – including Mohamed Salah, Alisson Becker, the challenge he expects versus the Hammers and Rio Ngumoha’s development.
See a summary of the discussion below…
On how the game could impact Liverpool’s position in the table…
The way I see it is that it’s another game for us and we’re not so focused on other teams. As all managers always say, we are mainly focused on ourselves and we know that we need to win a lot of games because our competitors for these Champions League places are very good teams as well, win a lot. So we know we have to win a lot as well, and that’s where our focus is on and not so much about points, gaps, all the difference. Although we are aware of the league table, that’s for sure.
On Salah’s run without scoring a Premier League goal…
He set his own standards and those are so, so, so high that the moment when he doesn’t score for a few games, people are immediately surprised. So that is only something that’s probably the biggest compliment he can get. And then with data you can use it in your advantage or disadvantage. So, not to use the FA Cup game if we play a Premier League side, you can argue if that is fair. But that’s the way it works. If we want to highlight something really positive, we try to forget one or two games. If we want to highlight something really negative, we can try to forget one or two games as well.
For me, I think it’s quite recently – three games ago – that he had an assist and a goal against a Premier League side, Brighton, that is a very good Premier League team for so many years already. So, that’s the reality. Then you can change data and say he did not score in nine Premier League games. That’s the standard he set for himself, that’s why people are surprised when things like that happen.
On Salah’s overall performance level…
I think then I should go really detailed into his performances, and that’s something we do together and maybe it’s not the place and time to do it over here [at the press conference]. We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals and that’s at this moment of time maybe the biggest difference in his performances or in his game time. But we also know even in my time this has happened before. I don’t exactly know if it happened nine games in a row, but I’ve had these questions earlier: he didn’t score for three, he didn’t score for five or I don’t know exact numbers. But I also know that in the end, he always starts scoring again.
And that’s the challenge he has now and we have now – to make sure he starts scoring again. Because he’s not our only attacker that at this moment of time doesn’t score as much as we are used to of our attackers. So, it’s not only the focus he deserved that is totally on him because of everything he did for the club, but Hugo [Ekitike] and Cody [Gakpo] haven’t scored that many goals recently as well. So it’s, again, a team thing that we have to improve. The good thing is that we keep clean sheets so that means they don’t need to score that many. Although against Qarabag we scored six and there was another game that we scored four, Newcastle.
On the importance of goalkeeper Alisson in his team...
In an ideal world you don’t need your goalkeeper. That means you defend so well that you don’t need a goalkeeper that makes important saves for you. But the good thing for us is [that] if we do need a goalkeeper, we have an outstanding one. We already have him now for seven years... seven years ago he made his debut. The good thing is that we not only have one good goalkeeper, we have Giorgi Marmardashvili, [who] is also a goalkeeper that could be a number one.
This club is in a really good place when it comes to goalkeepers and has been for so many years. Before Giorgi was there, we had Caoimhin [Kelleher] and he did really well for us and now for Brentford. But Ali has always been the number one and that tells you how good he is if he can keep Caoimhin and Giorgi behind him. We needed him once against Forest after three minutes and again he was there for us.
On whether he is expecting a similar challenge this weekend to the one against Forest last Sunday...
Yeah, because data sometimes tells you something that’s right and sometimes you can manipulate it. But I cannot manipulate the fact that we struggled a lot against the teams that [were] promoted – Burnley at home, Leeds at home and I probably forget one or two. We understand at this moment in time how difficult winning games in general is. [It] doesn’t matter where they are positioned in the league table – that's the current Premier League. But that’s not only for us.
I watch a lot of games, as any manager does before you play a team. You watch four or five games or maybe sometimes more, sometimes a little bit less. I can tell you that we are not the only team that sometimes plays a half of football that we played in the first half against Forest. But that’s also the quality you face and also you have to give credit to Forest for the way they played in the first half. That is the new reality in the Premier League probably for the last one, two, three years. Before that it was maybe a bit more obvious which were the top teams and they will always beat the others. Recently you see a change in that and that has probably a lot to do with all the money that goes into the league and that these teams also have owners who can spend a lot of money.
On what he feels Ngumoha needs to do in order to be handed a start in the Premier League this season...
Another great example how you can manipulate data, only talking about Premier League games [and] not talking about the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League. So only taking that and then saying he only played 90 minutes [in the] Premier League. I think if you want to be more realistic, or you just tell the truth – that’s sometimes nice as well! – then you see his playing time has improved massively over the last few weeks and the reason for that is because he developed, he became a better player. I think it’s only very positive people start to talk about him because that tells you that he does really well. I would love people to talk about all the players I have on the bench like that because that means every time I bring them in they do really well, and that’s something we like.
It’s another example of a player that developed in the last six, seven or eight months towards a player people want to see more and more. The same goes for me because I play him more and more recently. That’s all to do with the fact he does well when he comes in. Of course, the highlight was completely on his great one-v-one action [at Forest] – and it should be because I’ve sat here many times telling [you] how difficult it is to beat [someone] one-on-one and how important that is in football. He had a few other actions in that game as well, a few other moments in that game as well, where we also talk about and what maybe pundits don’t talk about that much. That’s part of the development of a player and I really like where he’s at at the moment, where he is in his development. I would be surprised – if he stays fit – if more minutes will not come in the near future.
On whether it’s more difficult to manage the excitement and expectation around Ngumoha...
No, it’s totally not difficult because of how he is. That’s something special; for a 17-year-old to be hyped like he is – not only now, but I think this is throughout his whole career, which is not so long – there have been a lot of talks about him because we can all see how special he is and his talent. He’s handling the situation really well, so that’s a big compliment to him, but probably to his parents as well who raised him. That he is down to earth, works really hard, just keeps going and doesn’t lose his head because one or two pundits had positive feedback about his game. That is something I think you also need if you want to make the next steps, because if you also already start to believe how special you are after one or two remarks from pundits, that’s probably not the way to become the player he wants to become.
So, he’s down to earth, works really hard, understanding, also understands which part of the game he has to improve, which is even more normal for a 17-year-old, but we have to keep his special quality – and that’s beating players in one-v-ones. That’s not 10 out of 10 times working and it doesn’t have to be, but you have to keep on trying because there are not many players in modern football that can take on one-v-ones on a regular basis, being successful and outplaying their opponents a lot of times. That is a quality that is special and that’s why we also want to take such good, good care of him, because we have a lot of belief in how special he is.