Press conferenceThe boss on 'chasing mood', Leicester clash, Firmino future and more

The Reds host the Foxes on their return to Anfield for the first time since November 12, seeking to build on their 3-1 Boxing Day victory at Aston Villa.

In addition to providing a squad update and further reaction to the news of the transfer agreement for Cody Gakpo, the manager discussed the Leicester fixture, Roberto Firmino’s future, Darwin Nunez and more at his pre-match press conference.

Read a summary below…

On Liverpool’s mindset in the Premier League at the moment…

Chasing. We are in a chasing mood definitely. We have to be very uncomfortable for everybody who faces us, that’s how it is. I liked a lot the start – I know the game at Aston Villa was a super-intense game – but I loved the start, our start into the game. You could see it was really different to a lot of games we played this season, very important, so that’s what we need again, a high-energetic start and then we have to keep going through the game obviously. Leicester had now their first game as well and they didn’t have a good start into the game, the intensity Newcastle put in was quite exceptional and for that day Leicester couldn’t cope with it, but Brendan [Rodgers] is an outstanding manager, Leicester have a lot of great, great players so they will try to do it completely differently against us and that’s what we have to be really aware of.

The good thing now is, we didn’t ever know exactly how it feels and stuff like this, but with the break we had and everything, it feels really fresh again, to be honest. We are really excited, we are really full of desire to go again and go again and go again, and that’s what we have to show now on the pitch obviously and the next opportunity for us is the Leicester game. Shortly after that then the Brentford game. That’s how it is for pretty much all of us. It’s all good for the moment.

On what he expects from this meeting with Leicester…

Our start was not brilliant so I didn’t have a more detailed look at the Leicester start, but I realised they didn’t collect a lot of points but found a way into the league as well. And yeah, great results before the break obviously. Now, for whatever reason, I don’t know exactly, we watched that game now obviously, I saw it but I cannot 100 per cent know or explain why things happened. Of course [James] Maddison is a big miss, that’s clear, but apart from that they had a really strong side but Newcastle are just a really good team, that’s obvious as well.

I expect a tough game and I expect a reaction and I expect all these kinds of things that you would expect. They changed the system during the game, that makes it now a little bit tricky to prepare for a specific system. They played with five in the back, they played 4-2-3-1, in this game now changed to a diamond, which looked I think more stable in that moment. Will Brendan decide to do that again? I don’t know.

That’s all information you have. At one point you have to make yourself independent of all this information because we have to push through what we want to see and what we want to do on the pitch and it’s a while ago that we had a home game – Southampton, when I was in the stands. So I’m pretty sure our people are pretty happy to see us again and I hope we can transform that into a sensational atmosphere. It’s a night game obviously, so floodlights on, Anfield rocking. That’s actually what I wish for, that we can really make a special game for us of that opportunity. But it’s not given yet, we have to work extremely hard – but I don’t see any reason why we shouldn’t do that.

On whether the arrival of Gakpo will impact the future of Firmino...

No, no. Not for me, absolutely not. We had talks with Bobby and I can say from my point of view I want him definitely to stay. No impact. If you mean by impact that Bobby might [move on]? You have to ask Bobby about that, but from my point of view, no.

On whether Liverpool are working with Nunez on honing his game...

The only problem that a footballer has is if you improve then you get tested every three days pretty much and then it’s, ‘Oh, it didn’t work out yet. Are they not working on it?’ Of course we are. It’s more about talking and to stay relaxed in these moments because I am really not only in the business since yesterday and I saw so many developments of players in all directions. For strikers it’s a problem if he doesn’t have chances. That’s a real problem, if he doesn’t get into situations. That’s a problem. You can sort that, but it’s much more difficult. The rest, you get in situations, you gain experience in the same situation, you come into the same situation again, you know what you did last time so you do it slightly different or you do it again because it was unlucky and all these kind of things. That all comes with time.

In a top-level football competition like the Premier League, with the limited amount of sessions you have, it is not that we go outside and tell him after playing 90 minutes in the last two games, ‘OK, come on, today we do finishing.’ It’s just not possible. It is more about talking about it – and we are in constant conversation about this, but in the right manner and not pointing the finger and saying, ‘Here you have to finish like that, here you have to finish that...’ He is an exceptional talent, really exceptional. Yes, that he comes in these situations, that’s what I meant after the game – he was not to defend in these moments. He missed the goal, yes, but he was not to defend because there is nothing you can do against this power when he can generate that. The rest will come, that’s how it is.

The only problem is we talk every day pretty much about it, or you get judged every day and sometimes things need a little bit of time but it can go [quickly] in football. You make an incredible goal and stuff like this and then all of a sudden you come down. I saw so many top-class strikers in moments where the world was judging them and thought, ‘I am not sure that will happen again.’ If you have quality and the right attitude, everything will be fine – and that’s the case with him.

On what the squad worked on during the 12-day training camp in Dubai...

It was obvious for us. We were pretty busy in the break as well. In the end, we prepared the real work through the analysts and we told them what kind of videos we want. They gave us the first few situations and we said, ‘OK, I am not sure...’ and then we realised we had to go back to show the real situations. We had to go back to last season. Yes, there were a couple from that season – early in the season – but it was never like it was not exactly like it should be. We really worked a lot on these kinds of things. It was not easy to change it immediately.

When you have a problem, the solution is not always in front of you; sometimes you have to work a little bit longer or harder to find a way through. Yes, that’s why I said I was really pleased with the start in the [Villa] game. I don’t know how often I’ve sat here and you’ve told me we conceded the first goal and I nearly got sick of that. You obviously cannot avoid always conceding a goal, but it is really important that we find a different start into the games. OK, City it was different, was not what we wanted, but Aston Villa was exactly how I wanted us to start. That’s the first step into a game and that’s something we worked on, obviously the intensity in our defending situations, the counter-pressing, must be on a different level and all these kind of things. We worked a lot on it and I saw signs, yes, but it is a long-term project and we have another 23 games for sure to go and we have to show that in all of them.