Round-upArne Slot press conference: Southampton challenge, Konate form, Elliott return and more

The Reds head coach sat down with reporters at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning to preview the fixture at St Mary’s Stadium (kick-off 2pm GMT).

Read the best bits from the press briefing below…

• LFC fitness update: Alexander-Arnold, Alisson, Chiesa, Elliott, Jota and Van Dijk

On whether he’s enjoying Liverpool’s position in the table as leaders...

It would be a bit strange if I would tell you I am not enjoying being in the position we are in now, but we also understand it is only 11 games and a lot of games have to be played. We all know the teams we face in this league [and that] they are able to have the same run of games as we had, so if we want to stay where we are we have to keep bringing the results in, which is not going to be easy - starting on Sunday. Everybody maybe feels like they are bottom of the league at the moment, but they don’t play at all like this.

They’ve made it very difficult for the teams that are in the top three, four and five. Their playing style is very interesting; it was a joy to watch their games because they have a very interesting and nice way of playing. It’s going to be a difficult one, especially after the international break, which is always a difficult one for everyone. The first two times we played at home and now we play away, so another challenge. We like to be where we are, and if we want to stay there we have to keep on winning games.

On Pep Guardiola extending his Manchester City contract...

That is good news for City, first of all, and also good news for the league because I think everybody wants to have the best managers possible over here and the best players over here - and he is definitely one of the best managers, maybe the best manager, in the league. If you look at what he did in the last few years, four times champions in a row, it’s fair to say that he is maybe the best manager in the league. So, that is a good thing, but on the other hand they have so many quality players that if he had made the choice to leave the club I wouldn’t have expected them to have ended up bottom of the league next season. Yes, good for the City fans and interesting for us as managers to keep on facing one of the best managers football has ever had.

On Liverpool’s forthcoming fixture list...

We do indeed have an incredible fixture list coming up - starting with Southampton. That is always by far the most important game and if you want to enjoy, or go into the games, against the other two mentioned [Real Madrid and City], the best thing you can do is always [go into them] with a win. It has no effect at all to my team selections for the other two games, but what does have an effect is the playing style of Southampton, the players coming back from South America [and] how fit they are, the injuries we have and the players coming back. That is the only thing that has something to do with the team selection [and] not at all the games that come afterwards.

On the strength of the Premier League meaning Southampton are still a major threat despite their league position...

I would say [they’re] much more than a capable team. I’ve seen them already playing against City and Arsenal and against Wolves. Those are the three games I’ve seen already and with two more days coming up I will probably see one or two more. They’ve shown that they are very, very capable of playing teams like us. I think it was against [Manchester] United where they had a penalty first, so they’ve been in my opinion a bit unlucky. The playing style has been excellent and they’ve been in almost every game. They could’ve had a result in almost every game they’ve played. I know everybody is looking at Madrid and City as difficult, but in my opinion Southampton is going to be a difficult one as well.

On how he selects a team with players returning from the international break...

It’s a bit of everything... you talk to the players. You want to hear from the medical and the performance staff and what they feel about it. Then you listen to your own technical staff and then you look at the opponent you play and see what is the best team to select. It’s a bit of everything but that’s not different to any other game. The only difference there is now that you always wonder the players who have played in South America how they come back. [They] normally [have] jet lag as well. That’s the only difference maybe between team selection for now than for all the other games because in all the other games you also look at the players and get the information from your staff members and look at the opponent.

On Ibrahima Konate’s recent form and selection...

First of all, it’s always about the player [and] how much effort does he put in to stay fit. Then second of all you’ve got the performance staff and technical staff to do the best possible thing for him to keep him fit. But if the player doesn’t buy in himself, it’s almost impossible for us to keep him fit. We have our ideas about how to keep a player fit and he bought into that, so until now that has gone really well for him [and] a lot of players. The first game he didn’t play and there was a reason for that because if you look back at our pre-season games they weren’t his best games at the moment. But to be fair to him, he came back, like so many others, quite late because of the tournament.

We were already training for a few weeks and Jarell [Quansah] did really well in pre-season so I thought it was in my opinion a logical decision to play Jarell. At half-time [against Ipswich] I think I made the decision that we needed Ibou and [that’s] the reason why we were from the United game, which was his first one after him not playing for a long time, because he didn’t play at the Euros and in the end phase of the season he didn’t play for Liverpool as well. He not only bought in to getting fit and doing everything for this, but every time we had a meeting with him it was, I would maybe not do justice to all of the players, but he was the one that I could see that he wanted to learn and wanted to listen and wanted to improve. That’s what he did in my opinion and that’s why his improvement compared to the first game he played in pre-season until the first game he played in Ipswich was already a massive difference.

On what he has learned from the first matches back after an international break previously…

Last time, I said before the Chelsea game that I am not so worried or think that much about the first game after the international break. My main worry is always the game plan of our opponent and the style they play - that makes a game difficult. I don’t think back then against Chelsea it was also about the time we started the game, [if] it was the early kick-off. That can have a bit of influence on the game but the most influence is always our own game plan, our own intensity we play with, compared to the team we face and their game plan. That is always the biggest challenge there is and all the other things are only small, or smaller, details than the ones I just mentioned.

On the boost of having Harvey Elliott back to fitness…

We always want all of our players available and it was a blow for him and for us that he got injured for such a long time, because I think he has been out for three months now. Now we also have to give him time to come back to his normal level. I just spoke about Ibou Konate, who was out from playing football for maybe two or three or four months because he didn’t play at the end of the season and didn’t play in the Euros; as a result of that, his first game against Man United in pre-season wasn’t his best. That is something which is completely normal for a football player, and this is something we have to take into consideration with Harvey as well. Yes, he is training with us again but that is different than being on the top of your game immediately again. So we have to give him time for this as well, but I am very fortunate that he is back, especially with the amount of games coming up in the upcoming two, three or four months.