Round-upArne Slot's pre-Sunderland press conference: 'They have shown a great mentality'

The Reds will return to Anfield for an 8.15pm GMT kick-off, seeking to build upon Sunday's victory over West Ham United.

Regis Le Bris' newly promoted outfit have made a strong start to the campaign so far, having gathered 22 points and lost only three of their opening 13 matches.

Ahead of the meeting with the Black Cats, read a round-up of Slot's pre-match press conference below…

On how tough an opposition Sunderland will be...

Yeah, a big compliment for their manager because they brought in a lot of new players and they started off so well. I saw the game Chelsea against Arsenal on our way back home [from West Ham]. It was a very high standard game, two teams that were fighting each other and working so hard [with] all the players on the pitch. Then I was aware of the fact that Sunderland was the team that beat Chelsea in their stadium and had a draw against Arsenal. You can look at the league table by looking at how good they have done until now but after that game, knowing that Sunderland is a team that beat Chelsea and had a draw against Arsenal tells you how strong they must be.

On facing a team with strong resilience after their recent comeback against AFC Bournemouth...

Another game where a set-piece was also very important for them in this situation. They've shown great mentality, but not only great mentality, the style they play, the risk they take when they don't have the ball, playing a high-paced game and players are working so, so hard all 11 of them to get a result. That's also what I saw with Chelsea and Arsenal. If you play Chelsea and Arsenal and you don't do this with 11 then you have no chance of winning. That's why they must be a team that does this and that's what I saw when I looked at them yesterday and I will watch more of them today. They are a very hard-working team with also a very clear identity in how they want to play off the ball and on the ball.

On Joe Gomez stepping in at West Ham and being a dependable figure...

It's a skillset he has that after a long time not playing you can play him again and he just performs as he did before. That is something that's not easy because I've worked with more than a few players that after a certain amount of time without playing it's difficult for them to get to a certain standard again. It's definitely one of his skillsets. I also think it was really helpful for him that Dominik Szoboszlai helped him out a lot. Joe did really well but he got a lot of help from Dominik.

On how important it will be for his players to 'set the tone' with their play against Sunderland...

That's always important. In that situation [Giorgi Mamardashvili holding the ball at his feet] PSV was also pressing us high. But where PSV normally jumps to the goalkeeper and we can make a triangle, this time they didn't and I think Giorgi was prepared for someone to jump to him. That's why he waited a little bit longer than usual to find an option. I think it was only one moment but it is never helpful. Sunderland are a similar team to PSV in that moment. For the rest of the game I think PSV was in a low block, which we didn't expect them to be, but they did.

Sunderland combines both, they are either pressing you really high or 11 players defend in and around with all they have and that's why they are such a difficult team to play against. But it's in general important to start a game of football well, ideally even by scoring a goal. That's what both teams want and we're going to try that tomorrow better than we did recently because recently, except for the West Ham game, we've conceded at the start.