Q&AThe best bits from Arne Slot's pre-Brentford press conference

The Liverpool head coach covered plenty of topics during the AXA Training Centre briefing ahead of his side's visit to Gtech Community Stadium in the Premier League.

See the highlights from it with the following Q&A.

• Liverpool to assess Diogo Jota fitness ahead of Brentford clash

On whether he views the Brentford game as an opportunity to put pressure on Arsenal because they play later on Saturday...

No, I don't look at it that way. I didn't even know that they were playing later than us. I only look at the opponent that we have to face and that's a tough one. [Brentford] was my first Premier League game [at Anfield] and then I already thought, 'If this is going to be the resistance we get every week then this is a more difficult league than the Eredivisie.' Which I knew before I came but it was proven that day as well. They've had a very good season until now, had a 2-2 against [Manchester] City – great game, both teams creating a lot of chances – and their manager has done a fantastic job for so many years now. You can see that it is a team that has worked together with their manager for a long time. That's my only focus and not on when do Arsenal play or when do Chelsea play or when do all the others play. We only focus on ourselves and the team we have to face.

On the title race...

I don't think we are as much as the media thinking about the league table every second of the day. We are trying to get the best out of the players, and with 'we' I mean my staff and the players trying to get the best out of themselves every single day. These players know how long the season still is and how many games they have to be in the best possible form to win something in the end of the season, which is not something that happens every single season. We are not so focused on the league as other people are. But we are focused on getting a good training session today and getting a good game tomorrow. And as a result of that, we are hoping for a result. But the only way to get a result is to work on a daily basis in the best possible way.

On the strength of the Premier League and Brentford...

This season, maybe more than every other season, shows the strength of every single team that's in the league. Even yesterday evening, I think it was quite a surprise to see Southampton going toe to toe with [Manchester] United. So, it shows you that in the second half of the season that it's even harder to win your games than in the first half of the season, because teams are longer together, managers are working longer with the team, you've played already once against each other so maybe there's a different game plan, some teams bring players in to strengthen the squad and teams are fighting for getting into Europe, winning the league, trying to stay in the league.

So, [the] second half of the season is always even more difficult than the first half of the season. Brentford is an example of a team that was already really strong in the first half of the season, especially at home, but it maybe had something to do with the fixture list as well because they had a lot of difficult away games. But they are a very good team for a few years now and they showed that in this first half of the season and especially [on] Tuesday evening again against City.

On Darwin Nunez...

That's your perception and maybe the perception of other people as well – but it's not my perception that he's struggling with self-confidence. He was involved against Accrington Stanley in the first goal again as well, he was involved in the goal against Fulham that [Diogo] Jota scored and he scored one against Southampton. I think after that it wasn't that he had many starts – maybe one time, I don't know exactly. For me, it's the life of a striker – sometimes you score, sometimes you don't. And he hasn't started every single game. The most important thing for me is that we as a team were able to score every single game, except for the Tottenham one and [Nottingham Forest]. So, it tells me that we have so many goals in our team. Darwin will score his goals, like he did for this club already and he will keep doing this. But I don't see him struggling that much as the way you see it and he's still involved in goals in the last few games as well.

On his attacking options...

I do agree with your perception that Cody [Gakpo] is in a very good place, so sometimes we agree! Lucho [Luis Diaz] has done really well as a nine and [at] West Ham just before the winter break that was the performance of us as a team but from him as a nine also very good. Afterwards, he played there in three more games, I think – United, Tottenham and the last one against Forest – and in all games we've created many chances as a team, and that's the most important thing. I'm happy with how he does if we play him as a left-winger and I'm happy how he plays when we play him as a nine.

It's the same like Darwin, he [Diaz] has scored many goals already as a nine and he's scored many goals as an 11 as well. And sometimes it's the right-winger, Mo [Salah], who scores. Mo, you haven't talked about him yet but in the last three games he only scored a penalty. So, we can continue talking about every single player of us, about the goals they score, but in general we score a lot of goals and we create a lot of chances – that's the most important thing.

On whether a record of one clean sheet in seven Premier League games is a concern…

Not as many [clean sheets] as we did before. I wouldn't say it's a concern but it's also not what we want because it was one of our strengths also at the beginning of the season that we kept a lot of clean sheets. But it's every time the same what I am saying now – so, we have talked about the strikers or the attackers sometimes having a bit of difficulties to score – I think if I look at the amount of chances we gave away in the last seven games and I look at how many chances we gave away in all the games before, I don't see much difference.

The only difference is that the teams we are facing at the moment – so, Forest for example, they had one serious shot on target and that was a goal. That is not normal in football and this has happened to us. United had maybe three good chances against us and scored two, Tottenham had hardly any chances apart from the one when where Ali [Alisson Becker] lost the ball and the one chance they had in the end they scored.

So, that is, like with strikers, sometimes a phase in the season where you hardly concede anything but still they score. I've said already, Crystal Palace away, that we beat 1-0, 10 minutes before the end they went one-v-one against Vit [Vitezslav Jaros] and that was a bigger chance maybe than some goals we have conceded recently. So, sometimes you are a bit lucky and sometimes your goalkeeper makes a great save. But like the amount of chances we create, we hardly concede a chance and that has been the same for the whole season, but when it comes to collecting points I also see a bit of a difference at the moment compared to the beginning of the season.

On whether he wants more goals and impact from his attacking substitutes…

No, because there was not many times a reason for them to affect the game with a goal. Of course, every player will want to score goals, let that be clear. But one of the things I would like us to do better in the second half of the season than the first half of the season – although it wasn't many times necessary to make a late goal winner – there were a few games: United, Fulham, this one [against Forest], where we created chance after chance… we had a lot of chances in these three games to score the winner in the last phase of the game. But for almost all the other games, after 75 minutes we were already leading so there was not a real necessity then to score in the end.

But in the three, four or five games where we weren't winning yet we did create a lot of chances but were not able to score. Like I said, it's such a small sample size, if there was only three or four games where we needed a goal it is a bit simple to make the conclusion that we don't score it then. Hopefully we don't come in these situations a lot but we definitely, if we are coming in those situations, have one or two or three times a moment where we do score in the last minute of the game where we deserve it.

On whether Jota's fitness will impact Jayden Danns' immediate future this month…

I think you take a lot of things into account if you want to loan out a player and this could be one of them, but there are also other factors you have to take into account. Is it good for a player to get some playing time, yes or no? Do we still need him? We do already have three options for the No.9 position and it's not now that we expect Jota to be out for a long period of time. So, it will be a struggle to have him on the pitch maybe on Saturday, tomorrow, but we are hoping to see him on the pitch in the near future again. We have three options but Jayden did really well when he came in, so we have, actually, four options and then it is up to us as a club to make the best possible decision for the near future but also for the long-term future of this club.

On the threats Brentford pose…

A lot. So, some teams you play they have one or two big strengths and they play from these strengths completely, so it's either they play long ball and second ball and play counter-attack. But there are also teams that can do a lot of things well and I think this is an example of Brentford. They play a high press and man-v-man very well, they go to a low block if necessary with the whole team, they can score goals in all different ways. We all know their set-piece strength of course, they can score goals in the first seconds of the game. So, there is a lot for me to prepare the team for when we play Brentford.

There are also some teams that are very good in one or two things and that you can tell the team… but there is not one strength [of Brentford], I think they have many strengths and many different players. They can play five at the back, they can play with four at the back, so it shows me that they are a team that has worked for so many years with the same manager already because it is quite difficult to get one formation in your team, let alone if you want to have two and that mostly is the situation if you worked longer together. Then you are able to bring more formations into your team, so it is a lot to prepare them for.