Press conferenceTrent Alexander-Arnold on Villarreal, UCL dreams, Klopp's contract and more
Trent Alexander-Arnold wants to make the most of Liverpool’s ‘exciting’ situation in the Champions League this season.
The Reds are just 90 minutes away from their third final in the last five years, as they travel to Villarreal for the second leg of their last-four tie with a 2-0 advantage in hand.
Acknowledging the side’s task was far from complete, Alexander-Arnold previewed the encounter at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Read on for the No.66’s pre-match comments…
On the team’s mindset heading to Villarreal...
To go out there and win, to be honest. We have got the lead to protect and that comes with some game management for us. We know we can’t be silly over there and get drawn into the way they want to play the game. But at the same time, we go over there wanting to win and wanting to make sure we get through to the final. Being 2-0 up is a good lead for us and we are happy with it, but it’s a dangerous one and we can’t let complacency slip in. It’s about going over there and wanting to win the game, score goals, put the game to bed, hopefully, early on. But we know it’s going to be difficult and it’s easier said than done, but that’s the aim for us.
Jürgen Klopp's update on Roberto Firmino
On what reaching the final again would mean to him...
When you do get so close to it, you start having those memories of what it felt like – the lead-up to it, the special feelings you had sharing it with your family and obviously your teammates, the staff and things like that. It’s an exciting time. Being one game away from getting there again is exciting for us. We’ve put in the work this season, had an excellent campaign so far, saw off a lot of difficult opponents, and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to put them to bed and get to our third final in five years I’ve heard, so it’s a good sign and hopefully we’ll be able to get there.
On getting a rest at Newcastle United at the weekend...
Since the turn of the year it’s been like this, it’s been relentless [with] a game every three or four days. It just goes to show the quality we’ve got as a team, as a squad to be able to make changes that in other seasons we haven’t been able to make and we see a strain towards the end of the season. If I’m talking on behalf of all the lads, we feel as fit as ever, we feel fresh, we feel good going into every game. Being able to make those rotations obviously helps recover the legs and it also gives other lads minutes to go out there and perform as well. You’ve seen we’ve been able to rotate and change who is playing, but maintain that consistency of results.
On playing in his third Champions League semi-final and whether that experience has helped in this situation...
Looking back on the two previous semis, we made it quite difficult for ourselves – especially in the second legs, we’ve had to dig deep and see the game out. So hopefully tomorrow we’ll be able to do it a little bit easier than we have previously. But you don’t take these things for granted and you know that the four teams left in a Champions League campaign are always up there with the best teams in the world, so that’s what we are up against. Going away from home is always difficult as well. We’re expecting their fans to be really pushing them on and making it difficult for us with the way they are going to play. So, we’re expecting a difficult game but when we set up and we’ve gone through our analysis and we point out their weaknesses, hopefully we’ll be able to use that to our advantage.
On relishing Champions League semi-finals...
It’s easy to kind of get that complacency of, ‘We’ve got world-class players, world-class staff, a world-class manager, this is our third semi-final in five years, so we’re probably going to get there again and we will get there again so it doesn’t really matter.’ But that’s not the case for us. We don’t know if we are going to get this opportunity again, but we are in a really good position right now, so we need to make the most of it and make sure we change that from making a semi-final to making it to another final.
On coping with pressure...
To be honest, I feel like we thrive off it. I’ve said it before, I feel this is always the best time in the season for us lads. Every game is a final, [we’re] pushing on all three fronts now. These are the exciting games, you want to be playing in these, you want everything on the line and you want every game to feel like you have to win it. I feel the lads feel the same way. It’s exciting, the buzz you get from scoring a goal in the game and you know it’s vitally important. The goal on Saturday, Naby’s goal, there was a feeling of, ‘This is a big goal’, it’s difficult to go there and score – same with Hendo’s cross-shot against Villarreal, those kind of goals. They give you a different feeling of, ‘This is big, this is massive.’ Then the feeling after the game as well, knowing that the three points or the win is big for you, these are the best times that we’re going to have as a team. I think when you are pushing on all three fronts now going into the last month of the season, it’s an exciting time for us all.
On Jürgen Klopp signing a new contract with the club last week...
Hopefully those extra two years are just as successful as the ones we’ve had with him so far. I always feel it’s been an increase in success every season we’ve had. This season is a special one so far going into this final run of fixtures and we can really make it something special for us. It gives us that boost that hopefully we’ve got four more years of these kind of seasons to come.
On when they found out about the boss’ new deal...
We were all at home, to be fair. It wasn’t like a big celebration, ‘Oh, the gaffer’s staying for another two years, let’s all have a party.’ It was somewhere in between. I feel it’s hard for news to really sink in when games are so thick and fast. I think there will come a point when we’re able to settle down and say, ‘That was good news for us, something we wanted to hear.’ But I think even the manager wouldn’t have wanted it to distract us or take our focus away from the games. As a set of lads, we’re very focused on what we need to do. The manager hasn’t spoken about it, no-one has really mentioned it, it’s business as usual. But in the back of our minds, it is another two years and hopefully we’ll be able to make them successful.
On whether he would revise his opinion from earlier in the season that ‘for a squad this talented, it should be one trophy per season minimum’...
I did say one trophy a season minimum and that’s probably in a season that’s probably not really one of our best. But we are in fine form, we’ve played outstanding really all season, we’ve been able to win in all different kind of ways. When we are staring down the barrel of a few trophies, it’s kind of, we win every game here in May now and hopefully we’ve got our hands on a lot more silverware – that’s what we are looking at. Like I said before, these kind of games are exciting for us, this time of the season. If you think back to this time last season when we were struggling, trying to work our way back into the top four and secure Champions League, to be here now – second in the table, a point off City, second leg of the Champions League semis, an FA Cup final – who can complain? This is a very special season for us all and hopefully we’ll be able to see it through. Come the end of May, hopefully we will be in the history books again.
On whether he fears Liverpool could just ‘have a bad night’...
First and foremost, anything can happen in football. So we go over there and we know they are a top, top-quality side and able to beat world-class opponents. We’ve seen them knock out Juve and Bayern. I think they thrive off being the underdog and they play up to that. So it’s important for us not to get complacent and that’s very important for us. We are not complacent at all and I know it’s the old cliché, but it’s only half-time, 2-0 up, the next goal is vitally important in this tie and we know that. We expect any outcome, to be honest. Obviously we’re not going out there thinking we are going to lose. But you do understand if we’re not 100 per cent then, yeah, we can lose. But if we are at 100 per cent, we can go over and win as well. It’s important for us to make sure that we’re at it, our focus is 100 per cent and our concentration is on going over there and winning it. We’re not going over there to sit deep and protect our two-goal lead. But at the same time, we keep a clean sheet and we’re in a Champions League final again, so that’s important for us.