Press conferenceAlisson Becker: We have to be ready for AC Milan and at our very best

Two days on from a frustrating Premier League defeat at home to Nottingham Forest, the Reds have arrived in Italy for matchday one in Europe.

The first of eight fixtures in the competition’s new league phase comes at San Siro on Tuesday night, with Paulo Fonseca’s Milan the opposition.

On the eve of the tie, Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson spoke to the media – read a full transcript of his briefing inside the stadium below…

On a chance for the team to put the disappointment of the weekend behind them…

Yeah, tomorrow is a big chance for us to prove again and go back to the good start we had in the season. Unfortunately, the last match we were far, far away from what we could do on the pitch, in respect of the other games the way we played. And we know that. But football is quick, and we have to be really focused for tomorrow night. It will be a really tough opponent that we are going to play against and we have to be ready.

On his feelings coming back to Italy and San Siro…

It’s always a pleasure to me, coming back to this country. I also come back here on holiday with my family – it’s always a lovely and special place to be. I always repeat the same: I love Italy. Tomorrow will be a tough game for us. Before us is a great team, a huge club, an historic club – we know that because we know the history of football. We know that these two teams have competed in great finals and matchdays, there have been a couple of them in the 2000s. For us, it’s a pleasure to play in a game like this tomorrow. We are ready to fight to get our targets.

On Milan goalkeeper Mike Maignan…

Mike Maignan is a great goalkeeper, he is doing incredibly well and he has been doing so for three, four, five years. Since he came here to Milan he has always played wonderfully, and also with the French national team he has replaced a wonderful, great goalkeeper who has been a world champion. He is doing great, every time he goes to the pitch he plays very well. He is a very physical player, he is quick, he has technical skills. He is a very clean player. He is a very good goalkeeper, he is one of the 10 best worldwide. In terms of quality as a goalkeeper, he has advanced a lot. There are so many good goalkeepers but he is one of the best.

On how the atmosphere at San Siro might impact the Reds…

If you play at a high level like we do, you need to like these kinds of settings and atmospheres, with supporters supporting you or going against you. I’m sure it will be a good occasion, a wonderful opportunity to play football in front of thousands of people, thousands of AC Milan supporters. We are happy about this opportunity and at the same time we need to be ready to do our best. If we really want to win this game we need to do our very best because we have a wonderful team ahead of us. Italian football is always tough, it’s always a problem for English teams to play versus Italian rivals, so we need to be ready.

On the new Champions League format and Liverpool’s chances in the competition this season…

I think for the supporters it’s amazing – more games, more bigger games, big teams playing against each other. For us players as well, it’s a good thing that you are going to play against the best in Europe. And it’s always a good idea to add some games to the calendar that is not busy… I’m being ironic a little bit! But we are here to do our job. Sometimes nobody asks the players what they think about adding more games, so maybe our opinion doesn’t matter, but everybody knows what we think about that, having more games. Everybody is tired of that, but we have to bring those kind of things onside and stay focused on the big challenge that we have here tomorrow. And if we have a chance? Let’s see. Let’s see what we’re going to do on the pitch. A lot has changed in the last years with us, we didn’t play the Champions League last season and we are all looking forward to that, to be back in the Champions League. And we’re going to do our best to try to win.

On Federico Chiesa’s arrival and transition at the club…

I don’t need to give you any introduction to Federico Chiesa because he is a wonderful football player, you perfectly know him much better than we do. In the past years he has given proof of his quality. He got injured, he had some ups and downs, he had some bad periods, but the way he landed in Liverpool was extremely positive, to me. He arrived to our squad with a huge smile painted on his face. Everybody is enthusiastic about Federico and he is extremely happy about having this chance of playing in our squad. His quality, he shows it every time, every day. We are lucky to count on him, he is a top-level player who can help our team.

On his perspective of Arne Slot’s changes to the team…

Obviously all the players who have worked for a long time with Mr Klopp will remember what he told us, so our characteristics will be influenced by Jürgen Klopp also in the future, but Slot has arrived with great enthusiasm, with new ideas regarding football. Actually, his new ideas are not that different from what we did in the past, but he loves to make ball possession, loves to create occasions starting in the defence, starting from the goalkeeper until arriving to the other goal. This will give us chances. We like this ball possession, making passes, we like to play close to each other, we like the movements Mr Slot wants us to make. And he also gives us freedom to be whatever player we like to be. He works a lot with his staff and his staff work a lot as well. With Mr Slot’s arrival, we have all been very enthusiastic and we believe in the fact that we can do a good job this season.

On whether there is an extra appreciation for the Champions League after being out of the competition last season…

Yes, imagine something that you really like to do and you stay without doing it for one year, how looking forward you would be for doing that thing again. That’s the way we feel. Playing in the Champions League was one of the reasons that I came here to Europe from Brazil, so not being able to play [in it] last season was really hard. But here we are again after a really good season of us, qualifying for the Champions League in a really difficult league, the Premier League. We are looking forward to this beginning.

On Milan and their start to the season…

We have always been impressed by the high quality of the squad. You cannot just take a look at the last results because the quality of AC Milan is there, it’s still there, and the quality of their players too. We know that tomorrow will be a wholly different game, it’s a Champions League game, there will be the full motivation of players and supporters, so it will be a completely different story. Tomorrow the situation will be very much different from what we have studied so far regarding AC Milan. We are focused on what we need to do, our tactics, our strategy on the pitch, and that’s it. We really want to do a great job tomorrow, we want to perform greatly, not like we did against Nottingham Forest. Tomorrow we will have the chance to prove we are still standing. We want to start very well in this competition.

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On what he considers an ‘appropriate’ number of games in a season for player welfare…

I think this is not only a question that I should answer: here, OK, the number is 30 or the number is 40. It’s a matter to sit down all together and listen to all the parties. Because we understand we have the media side, from TV; we have the side of UEFA, FIFA, the Premier League, the domestic competitions. We are not stupid, we understand that and we understand people want games, people want more games. But the reasonable thing would be that all the sides I mention and all the people who are responsible for making and organising the calendar to sit together and listen to all the parties, inclusive of the players.

I think so many players have spoken already about that. We just need to be listened [to], that’s what we would like to do, to sit together and to understand what the thinking is of the direction that football wants to go. And not only adding games, adding competitions, adding this, adding that. At the end, what we want is giving our best for the football, if you’re tired you cannot compete in a high level, and what I want is to give my best in all the games I play. But we need a solution for that and it doesn’t look like we are close to a good solution for the football’s sake and the players’ sake.