NewsArne Slot press conference: 'Big' Bournemouth challenge, Chiesa, loan discussions and more

Table-topping Liverpool travel to face Andoni Iraola’s seventh-placed side in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon (3pm GMT kick-off).

Slot met with the media at the AXA Training Centre to preview the south-coast clash – read a summary of his chat below…

• Injury and fitness news: Latest on Joe Gomez, Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez

On the challenge he is expecting against Bournemouth…

It’s a big one and this is probably going to sound strange [but] I knew this already when we played the second half against them in our home game. We were 3-0 up at half-time and I was expecting a second half where we could just control the game, have the ball a bit and maybe score the fourth one – but they just kept on going at us for 45 minutes and that showed me the character of the team. Since then they have been outstanding. They were before that game also. Because we were 3-0 up at half-time, we didn’t really match the first half, in my opinion, maybe we deserved to be up but not with three goals.

And afterwards they have beaten so many strong teams and there is a simple reason for that: a lot of quality. Created by Richard [Hughes], of course, our current sporting director who worked there for a few years. And he hired a fantastic manager as well. Why is he a fantastic manager? He has a great game plan and his players work incredibly hard. And then in a different way than Arsenal, they are also a threat on set-pieces. Where Arsenal nine out of 10 times does the same, they always come up with worked ones that have been very useful for them as well. So, in every department a very good and strong team and they deserve to be where they are – maybe they even deserve a bit higher than the position they are at the moment.

On Justin Kluivert’s development as a player…

He is one of the many examples where I think Richard deserves a lot of credit, but not only Richard, the manager of course as well because he started working with him. And you know that I believe the team makes individuals better. You need quality and that’s what Richard brought there, and his successor probably as well. But I think most of the players that are there were there last season already as well. And the manager has done an incredible job.

Justin, great season he’s having – nice and good to see for us because we always knew he was a big talent. He left Holland quite early, he was a bit criticised for that because in Holland many people always feel you need to have some extra years in the Eredivisie before you go abroad. But he is a great example that you can be really successful by going abroad early and going to a few clubs and then at a certain age – because I think he is only 24, he is not so old yet – be at this level already. He will play another big talent that has grown up at Ajax, Ryan Gravenberch, so interesting match-up tomorrow.

On the condition of the Reds squad…

Yeah, you can say I rested a lot of players [in midweek], you can also say you played the ones who needed playing time. And I was really pleased how they performed at PSV Eindhoven, who, apart from three or four players that were not playing, had quite a strong team and we were more than competitive. Even in the second half when there were so many youngsters on the pitch. And the ones that stayed behind, they didn’t rest in the sense that they had three or four days off – they did train but they didn’t play a game. I’ve said already, that doesn’t give us any guarantees for Saturday but it hopefully will help us during the upcoming three or four months because the Premier League and the Champions League is a long season for them, with 10 months in a row non-stop playing games without any weeks off in between. So, hopefully that will help them stay fresh for the upcoming months.

On how ready Federico Chiesa is for more minutes in the Premier League…

Yeah, of course he is ready for more minutes in the Premier League, because if he can play 90 at Champions League level then you are able to play an amount of minutes in the Premier League. His main problem, if you want to call it a problem, is that he is in competition with Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Mo Salah and Diogo Jota. I think you’ll agree with me that they are doing quite well also. But it’s very good for us that it was six or seven months ago, he said, against Switzerland [for Italy] when they lost in the Euros was the last time he played 90 minutes. So it’s very good from him, but definitely also from our performance staff that we’ve during training sessions got him to the point that he’s able to play 90 minutes, without a lot of friendlies or whatever. A big compliment for him how hard he has worked and for the performance and medical staff as well.

• Federico Chiesa interview: First 90 minutes, proving himself and life at Liverpool

On Dominik Szoboszlai’s suggestion he may have ‘set the bar too high’ in his debut season with Liverpool, and his recent form...

If he said what you said then I will talk to him today or tomorrow and say at this club you can never set the bar too high because that’s impossible. The bar at this club is on the highest standard and this is where you have to get to. Probably he meant that he played some really good games and in football it is impossible [to maintain totally] because if you play 60 games of a certain level, you can go a bit lower – that’s normal – but not too far. Then we are talking about consistency. This season he has been very consistent in his work-rate, which is the main thing in football that is underestimated sometimes.

I’ve just highlighted why Bournemouth are doing so well, I think it is one of the reasons why we do so well also. He is not only working hard, if he works hard the intensity he can run at, the intensity he can play duels with, is of the highest standards, even of this level we are playing at. That’s what, for me, stands out with him compared to many others – the ability for him to run in a certain intensity and keep on running. I think what he is improving in recent weeks or recent months is that he is more and more involved in dangerous attacks and sometimes giving assists and goals. In the last game, he was involved in two goals. That is something he deserves because he is putting so much work in and his technique is outstanding. I have always felt that it’s a matter of time before he would score goals and give assists because his shot, his touch on the ball… yes, he should set the standards high because he is a player that can definitely reach those standards.

On whether he has spoken with Hughes about Bournemouth...

I spoke with him before this game – as I speak to him before every game. One day before the game, two days, three days, four days... we almost speak to each other on a daily basis. Of course, I asked him a few things on Bournemouth as well, but we have very good people that analyse Bournemouth and I am doing this myself quite a lot as well. I’ve seen a lot of games from them already. So, it is just the more information you can get, the better it is. My relationship with him is very good, which is probably what you can expect if you win a lot of games because mostly relationships between managers and sporting directors are a bit under debate if you start to lose a lot. My relationship with him is only very positive from the start until now.

On whether resting players in midweek was partly in preparation for Bournemouth’s athleticism...

There was no reason because we play Bournemouth and they run so much to rest them during the week. We would have done that against any other team that we face because, as I already said, we rested them not because of the Bournemouth game, we rested them more for the long term. It is quite a long time between November and March that there is no international break and I have a week off, but then I know [for] Virgil [van Dijk] – I know because of the Dutch [national] team – they play two games against Spain, so for them it just keeps on going. That’s why I have already explained, if you look at our season, after every three, four or five weeks we’ve tried to create a moment where players like Virgil and all the others who’ve played so many games didn’t play during the week, mostly that was a League Cup game that they didn’t play.

On how much the physical battle against Bournemouth is going to decide the game...

A lot, a lot. If you can’t compete with them in that aspect, then you need luck to win the game. And then you need a special moment or a special save, or a lot of special saves from Ali [Alisson Becker] to win the game. If we’re able to compete with them on a physical level, then the margins for us to have a chance to win the game go up a lot of course. But if we cannot compete with them physically, which I think we definitely can, because we are a team that’s really fit as well. I agree with you, they’re just above us, probably [that] has to do also with [the fact] we have a bit more ball possession than them. I think it’s one of the few games we’ve played this season that we were outrun, only by a small margin, but we were outrun against Bournemouth. I hope that it’s going to be different tomorrow.

On if any decision has been made on whether James McConnell or Jayden Danns may be allowed to go out on loan...

These are also ongoing discussions we have. You know how it is in football. Yesterday can be different than today or tomorrow. I can give you a certain answer and, of course, we’re not hoping this is going to happen, but if I leave the training pitch and there are three injuries along the training session then it’s going to be a different answer. It’s a process we are discussing a lot about. These decisions will be made and will be pushed towards the end of the window, which is almost there.