NewsArne Slot press conference: 'We have to embrace the pressure against Galatasaray'

The Reds need to turn around a 1-0 deficit against Galatasaray when they host the second leg of the last-16 tie at Anfield.

It is the third meeting between the clubs this season, with Slot’s men having also been beaten 1-0 in Istanbul during the competition’s league phase.

A fixture versus either Chelsea or holders Paris Saint-Germain awaits the winners.

Slot previewed the return with Galatasaray during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Read a summary of the head coach’s briefing below.

On the challenge of overturning a 1-0 deficit in the tie and how big a point in the season this game is…

What of course makes it difficult is we’ve played them already twice and we lost twice against them. The good thing is that now for the first time we play at home and we have the support of our fans, who will be supportive again tomorrow night, because that’s what they’ve always been and will always be for this club. What I liked after we conceded the 1-1 [against Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday], I think the players showed immediately the commitment they have, they sprinted back in a counter moment with seven or eight players to make sure we didn’t concede the 2-1 and a moment later they sprinted forward with five, six or seven to have a five-v-two or a four-v-two on the other end.

So that tells you that they are willing to fight, as they’ve done this whole season and as long as I’m here. I think there haven’t been many games where we’ve been outworked. A few, but not many. There haven’t been many games that we haven’t created more chances than the other team have created. A few, but even less than being outworked. So, our players will show that mentality again that they showed after the 1-1. And I’m 100 per cent sure that our fans will be like they always are, especially on European nights like tomorrow.

On fans’ reaction to Sunday’s result and ‘what concerns he may have they are beginning to get restless and what impact that can have’…

It’s never nice that they are frustrated because usually fans are not frustrated after you win. So, first of all you are frustrated yourself and disappointed about the fact that we haven’t won. Second of all, people have told me when I came here that – if, I think you mean it was also towards me, I don’t know if you mean that – when I came here, people have said to me this club is different than other clubs, they will support the manager for such, such, such a long time.

So the moment, if it’s true what you say – I don’t feel this at all but you are supposing something – then I must have done a lot of things wrong. And that’s never a nice feeling to have, because being at a club that’s always so supportive for their manager in good and bad times, then if they are not happy with me then apparently I’ve done so many things wrong and that’s never a nice feeling to have. But I also know how the football industry works. Winning can change a lot, and that’s what we are trying to achieve tomorrow night and we are completely ready for that, I can tell you that.

On if he ‘feels he has done something wrong that has impacted things this season’…

I did something wrong in the season that we won the league and I definitely did maybe make a few decisions that were not perfect in hindsight. But all the decisions I’ve made, I’ve always made for the same reason: for us trying to win the game. And all the decisions I’ve made, as any manager everywhere around the world tries, [is] to put his team into a situation that they create more chances than the other team creates and that you outwork the opponent. And as I said, I think I can say that at this club but also all the other clubs I’ve worked, 80 or 90 per cent of the games I’ve managed, my teams have outworked the other team and my teams have created more chances than the other team. That the outcome then not always does justice to what I just said, that’s the beauty of football and being in a low-scoring sport – that a deflected shot can be a way of conceding a goal as well.

On losing twice against Galatasaray this season and whether it’s related to playing them both away from home…

That’s something we have to show tomorrow, if there’s any impact between playing at home or away. This season and history has shown that we are even stronger at home than we are away. But we completely deserve to be in this Round of 16 for all the things we’ve done well in the Champions League. We’ve beaten Real Madrid here, we’ve beaten Atletico Madrid here, we’ve beaten Inter Milan, Olympique Marseille. So, we can look at the goal we conceded against Tottenham and say, ‘Ah, everything is going against us’ or we say, ‘We deserve to be here and we are having a chance to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Champions League.’ Against a very good team we are facing, that not only beat us twice because they played at home, also because they have a good team. But both games were really tight, details decided that game and we are going to work extremely hard – combined with our fans – to make sure these details are now in our favour and not, as the last time showed, in favour of the home team, Galatasaray.

On if he feels pressure about this match…

Of course I feel pressure, we all feel pressure, because we are in an industry where every single day you’re in this industry there’s pressure. We’re working at a beautiful club with a great, great history and we feel this. We can achieve the quarter-finals of the Champions League, so, yeah, that comes with pressure. But it’s also nice to have that pressure because we could have also been out or playing at a lower level or not even be in. So we embrace this pressure and we’re looking forward to playing Galatasaray tomorrow.

On not managing to score against Galatasaray in the previous two games this season and whether Davinson Sanchez’s suspension is ‘an advantage’...

You are right, we haven’t scored against them. We did, but that was disallowed by VAR [and] we thought we had a penalty [but] that was disallowed by VAR. We had our chances, [but] as so many times this season we weren’t able to convert them. That is not only because of us – it’s also because of Galatasaray. They throw themselves in front of every ball, they have a great fighting spirit in the team, which you usually see with teams that are top of the league and doing very good in Europe, so there’s a great energy in their team. That, combined with the support of the fans they had, led to the fact they could twice keep a clean sheet because they have a great mentality, because they have good players [and] good defenders as well.

They miss out one [tomorrow] with Sanchez, but this weekend they played with someone else centrally, Sanchez played as well, and they kept a clean sheet. The good thing about Galatasaray and about us is we don’t rely on 11 players, you have more than 11 good players available. That’s what they have, that’s what we have. We need to score a goal, that’s what we know, and that that’s not easy. That’s also what we know after facing them twice but we will fight for it, we will go for it to score a goal tomorrow and hopefully more than one.

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On a suggestion Liverpool are ‘individuals and not a team’...

Then I should have seen it and I haven’t, so I should have seen why [Jamie Carragher] said it. Did he have examples of that as well? I agree with a lot of things Jamie has said throughout this whole season. This particular one, I disagree with him, I don’t see this. As I said, after we conceded the 1-1 [against Tottenham], after so many disappointments we had this season, it would not have been completely strange or weird if the players would have given up, but they didn’t.

I can show you – and you can find it yourself as well – they had a counter-attack where seven or eight of our players were back in our 18-yard box, which led to their corner because we blocked that shot, which then led to a transition moment all the way to the other side where Hugo Ekitike had his big chance. A team that has given up, a team of individuals, a team that doesn’t work together, doesn’t show that resilience after our 120th setback this season... that’s a bit exaggerated, but we’ve had many!

So, I don’t know why he said it, what he meant with it, what examples he used for it to say this. Again, he said a lot of things throughout this season that I agree with him because I see similar things. I cannot always say them, but I’ve seen similar things, so it’s helpful for me now to say because I don’t have to go in detail which other ones I’m agreeing with. But this one, I disagree with him.

On whether the players ‘weren’t knitting the team together in terms of plans’...

That we are still not the unit and the force I would want us to be? Then, again, we are agreeing, but that also comes with not playing so many times together. Then, again, I need to go into details, which I prefer not to do, but it’s not like we are 11 individuals. If he meant that, I completely disagree. If he means that we are not perfectly playing together in ball possession and off the ball then he’s right, but that has nothing to do with an individual mentality, it has more to do with that the connections aren’t as strong yet as a team that’s already playing longer together in the same line-ups. So, not always Dominik Szoboszlai right full-back, No.8, No.10, right winger and all these things that we have to adjust to every single time. Then I see the same. But I see a team that is fighting together. That’s my opinion.

On where he would rank the importance of tomorrow’s game in terms of this season...

As the most important one because it’s the next one, but that’s a bit too simple. It’s always the next one that’s the most important. After Galatasaray, another big game is coming up – again with two days’ rest, by the way – against Brighton. We feel the importance of this game because we are able to reach the quarter-final of the Champions League and that would be something special for me because it would be my first and it would be special for all of us because we can never take a quarter-final in the Champions League for granted. No matter how much this club has performed in the past, we will always be happy of reaching that if we are able to beat Galatasaray tomorrow.