Q&AEvery word from Arne Slot's pre-Brentford press conference

The Liverpool head coach answered a wide range of questions from reporters at the AXA Training Centre on Friday ahead of his side's first home match of the Premier League season.

See what he had to say…

On his first Premier League game at Anfield...

It's not going to be the first taste because we played Sevilla already, but it's clear that it's the first league game at Anfield. [I'm] looking forward to it but I'm looking forward to every game I've played in the past as a manager and also to this one.

On how he manages nerves as a coach...

I hope [the fans] are twice as loud as the Ipswich crowd because the Ipswich crowd was really, really, really loud. I'm hoping the fans can be twice as loud then as the Ipswich ones – that would be a big help for us. But no, I'm not nervous at all, certainly not at this moment because I'm in the middle of preparing the team for Sunday. No, nerves are not there. It wouldn't be a good thing. If you've got nerves then you probably don't trust what you did before, you just don't trust your team. I trust what we as a staff do during the whole week to prepare the team in the best possible way and I trust the team a lot as well – again on Sunday.

On transfers...

I think you know already the answer. If a deal is done then you will hear from us. Until that moment, we don't speak about transfers or players that are not ours.

On not being 'worried by the lack of activity'...

No, because I trust the team. I've said many times before, I inherited a real good team, a team of many young players as well. I think we all know that especially young players can develop at the ages they are on at the moment, so we just try to work as hard as we can with them and we trust them a lot. They've proven last week that they earned this trust and I'm hoping that they show the same on Sunday again.

On explaining how he wants his team to play...

I think we are on a good track, if that's the way to say it, but we have to understand that some of them are only here for three weeks and there's quite a large part of our group as well that are with us for three weeks. It's not only about us, it is also about the opponent [and] what they bring to the game. I think I said it before that Ipswich put a lot of energy in the first half to make it really difficult for us. Or we stepped up, or Ipswich were not able to keep bringing the same energy in the second half – I think it was a bit of both. We got a bit more space and then you can see how well these boys can play. There's still a lot of work to do but it was a good first step, especially the second half.

On how much he is learning about his squad and the competition he has...

I'm learning every day still about these players [and] about the individuals and also how they cooperate with each other. For me, the last week was not only important on Saturday, [but] the Sunday was also really important because I learned and saw there that the ones that didn't play on Saturday were able to bring a really good training session in on Sunday. I think that's a real important thing for a team as well because we all know we're going to need many, many, many of them during the season for a lot of game minutes, and they brought in a really good training session on Sunday. That will help them and us for the rest of the season. Yes, I am still learning new things about the players, which is normal because, like I just said, with some of them I only work for three weeks, so [I'm] still seeing new things from them.

On Joe Gomez...

Yeah, it's [his head] been in the right place for three weeks. He's worked really hard since he came back, but he didn't play a lot at the Euros. When he came back in the first sessions he couldn't train the whole sessions, so we had to manage his load a bit. That was also the reason why he wasn't in the team last Saturday. But this week he had a good week in terms of load and how much he could do with the team. He's one of the players that I see new things from and learn things from what I see, also combined with other players. It's been a good week for him and for us until now.

On the business done with Brentford this summer...

I think they brought in two [Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg] really talented and good players. You could ask yourself the question, why do they leave? Both of them have played a lot of minutes last season and I think the both of them wanted to continue that journey of playing time. I think they were able to play for us but there's so much competition in the positions they play that they wouldn't play every minute of every single game. It was a really good deal for us and I think it's a really good deal for Brentford and also a good deal for the players. So, everybody [is] happy, unless they do too well on Sunday!

On Brentford and Thomas Frank...

You can see that their manager is there for a long time already. In the last game against Crystal Palace they could play a 4-4-2 and could play a 5-3-2, so they can change systems within a game and I think that's highly impossible if you work with a group for three, four or five weeks – maybe even after a year it's still not possible because it's so difficult to bring the best out of them in one system. So, if you can play two systems with them, you have to make the conclusion that Thomas Frank is doing a real good job over there for a lot of years already. They played a real good first game, as well as a good pre-season, so it's going to be a challenge for us to play them on Sunday.

On Jarell Quansah's response to being substituted at half-time at Ipswich...

In a way you would expect a player to react. I spoke to him immediately after the game, I spoke to him the day after on Sunday and at the end of that conversation he asked if he could train on the Sunday. Normally he should have done recovery, [but] he wanted to train. Unfortunately, I think it was Tuesday that he picked up a bit of an injury, so he couldn't train on Wednesday – let's see if he can train today.

He reacted in a way every player should have reacted. I don't think there was that much into it, although maybe the language was a problem because what I said was he did not lose every duel – but he lost one or two important ones, and one of them was just before half-time. From what has been told to me, it's like that I said he lost every duel – which he did not do, we as a team lost too many duels and he lost one or two as well. That's also what I said to the team the day after, it was not about Jarell [but] that we as a team didn't do well. In my opinion, the only threat at that moment from Ipswich was from [Liam] Delap and he won one or two important duels, [so] I was trying to get that strength out of their team by bringing in Ibou [Konate].

On selling some youngsters so far during the transfer window...

That's always a difficult one because young players want to play as well and if they want to develop they have to play. It's always like this. They come through the ranks of the youth academy and either then you're good enough to play for us many minutes or you're still not there, or there's too much competition in your position. I think still this team, with what we have, have a lot of homegrown players. One of them – Trey Nyoni – is also training with us on a daily basis, but [is] only 17.

This club will always bring big good youngsters and it's always a challenge to find the right moment to either play them, or if they played quite a lot of minutes they want to make the next step in their career and if that is not possible because Virgil van Dijk is playing here or Mo Salah is playing here or all the other top players are playing here then it's the best for them and also the club to let them go. You always want to take care of your own interest but you also have a responsibility towards the players and if they want to play somewhere and it is not possible with us, and they're not happy with 500 or 600 minutes because these youngsters didn't play many Premier League games, they played a few games in the cup, then you have to, in my opinion, let them develop somewhere else.

On whether the team's centre-backs are competing to play alongside Virgil van Dijk...

Virgil came in three weeks ago and, in my opinion, made a lot of impact. He made a lot of impact in all these years he's played here, but me working with him he's shown how much he cares about the team and how good he is. For him, and it's the same with Mo like all the others, they still have to bring their performances in. So, in my opinion, there are four players in competition for two positions [at centre-back]. At this moment, it is clear Virgil is playing and he is also going to play on Sunday if he is fit.

On Ryan Gravenberch's qualities for the No.6 position…

I think he brings in certain qualities which we like in that position. But he only played three games in that position and he did really well against Man United, against Sevilla and against Ipswich. Now only one of them was a game that matters in terms of a Premier League game, so he has a lot to prove in that position still. But [in the] first games he did well but, like with all of them, it's not about the individual, it's always what the team around them do for him to play a good game. Because if all the other 10 would have played [badly] at Ipswich, I don't think Ryan would have been able to play a great game. He has running capacity, so he can keep on running, he has a nice height and he is really comfortable with the ball. So, he has some attributes that he could play in that position but [there is] still a lot to prove for him, as for all the others. We have other options in that position as well. Interesting competition in many positions.

On Gomez's future…

At this moment, I'm expecting everyone to be here. But like you know – you are maybe even longer in football than I am, looking at you, [you are] a little bit older than me! – everything can change.