Reaction'Reaching a final should always be special' - every word from Arne Slot's post-match press conference
Arne Slot was left impressed by a dominant performance that enabled Liverpool to beat Tottenham Hotspur 4-0 and advance to the Carabao Cup final.
The Reds produced a powerful display in Thursday night’s semi-final second leg at Anfield and duly overturned a 1-0 first-leg deficit in comprehensive fashion, with Cody Gakpo’s goal before half-time levelling up the tie.
Slot’s team moved through the gears after the break and Mohamed Salah’s penalty put them ahead on aggregate, before Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk completed a one-sided final scoreline.
Liverpool will now seek to retain the trophy when they take on Newcastle United at Wembley on Sunday March 16.
Read every word from Slot’s post-match press conference below.
On how he feels after reaching his first final in charge of Liverpool...
Pleasant! Although if you know me a little bit, [you know] my thoughts are more on Sunday already than thinking about a final in a month. Our performance today was something that pleased me most. Reaching a final should always be special, even for this club. This club is used to playing finals, but still then we are working very hard every single day to try to improve players – and the players want to improve themselves every single day – but we are also in this business to play finals. We already know how difficult the final is going to be because we faced Newcastle already and they were very impressive yesterday as well. But, [there are] many games to be played before this final and this is where our focus should be at.
On how impressive he thought Liverpool’s defensive strength was...
Very impressive. I think, I am not saying anything strange, Tottenham are conceding goals because they have so many injury problems – that is probably the main reason why they are conceding goals – but they are always able to score goals as well and create a lot. For us to be so aggressive without the ball that it took them 80 minutes before they had their first shot on target, it doesn’t tell you anything about Tottenham [but] that should tell you a lot about our work-rate without the ball. That’s what stood out for me. To play against a team that is so good in creating chances, only conceding one shot is, in the end, a good accomplishment.
On Van Dijk urging the side back to restart after Gakpo’s opening goal...
I saw the same thing. I think it was a moment where you could see how we played through the whole game. It was so intense. The players were ready for it, the fans were ready for it and we all simply wanted one thing – and that was going through to the final. That mentality we showed from the first until the last second, but it was probably well shown in that moment as well.
On how he perceived the competition when he first arrived at the club…
It has been – most of the times – games where players who have not played that much have played a lot of minutes and I think that has been important for us as well because every time we need one of these players, they are ready to play as well. I think if you come to this country, you know the history of the FA Cup and the League Cup. I know as well, I think I say the correct thing, that the FA Cup is a bit higher [in prestige] than the League Cup but still it is a cup and a trophy to win and it is the one we won last season, and I think if you win a trophy in the season before you always have to take the challenge on trying to win it again.
On Gakpo, who has now scored 16 times already this season, equalling his tally from the whole of 2023-24…
I have no clue [how many goals he could end the season with], I am not so much into how many goals they score. I know if they work as hard as they do and they bring the ball out of the back as well as they do then we will always score goals because of the quality players we have, but these goals don’t come from itself. If you look at the third goal, the effort Conor Bradley puts in as a full-back to sprint all over the pitch and then assist Dom, that is just as important as the one that scores goals.
I think it was Curtis [Jones], when Mo who crossed it in, he went for it, that’s why the full-back had a little bit of doubt and the ball falls then to Cody. And if it is Cody or Lucho [Luis Diaz] or Diogo [Jota] or Darwin [Nunez] or Mo or Federico [Chiesa], they can all score goals but we have to make sure they come in those positions a lot. Therefore you need to run a lot and that is what they are doing, but Cody has a special season. But second half of last season he was special, during the Euros he was special for Holland, so it doesn’t come falling out of the sky. It’s something he did before.
On how and why the team have got stronger as the season has gone on…
For me, there are two reasons why we’ve become stronger. First of all, if you play more often together you know better what is expected. So, the first time I tell them how to bring the ball out from the back against a seven, nine and 11 press, they were maybe like, ‘OK, this should be done.’ But the more times you face them, the more it just becomes natural for you. That helps. So, the more games you play, the more meetings you have, the more training sessions you have, the better they know what we expect of them and what they have to expect from each other. Second of all, I believe in the fact that the more games you play, the stronger you become, the physically stronger you become. So, some people think you get tired but as long as you manage it well, I think players will get stronger by playing a lot of games instead of getting tired.