Round-upEvery word from Arne Slot's pre-Ipswich press conference

Head coach Slot will lead his new club for the first time in a competitive fixture as the 2024-25 season begins for the Reds with a Saturday lunchtime kick-off at Portman Road.

Ahead of the trip to take on Kieran McKenna's team, the Dutchman spoke with journalists in a Friday morning media briefing at the AXA Training Centre.

As well as providing a squad fitness update, Slot fielded questions on a wide variety of topics.

Ready every word below.

On how he is feeling ahead of his first Premier League match as Liverpool head coach…

Excited, of course. I think after a pre-season it’s always, for a player and also for a manager or a coach, nice to start the season because this is what you worked for in the last few weeks.

On the current situation regarding transfers…

I said many times already that I think our squad is really strong and it is not so easy to find players that can help us or can even strengthen the squad. [Martin] Zubimendi was one of them, to be fair, but he decided not to come and then we go forward with the ones we have and those ones have done really well in pre-season. So, we’re in a good place and like I said many times before, in the background Richard [Hughes] is trying to strengthen the squad as he can but unfortunately Zubimendi decided not to come and he [Hughes] did every effort, he tried everything to bring him in, but if a player doesn’t want to come it’s obvious that he is not coming.

On what he sees as the ‘realistic aims’ for this season…

I think at this moment the whole team stayed together. We lost Joel Matip and Thiago [Alcantara] and Adrian as a goalkeeper of course, but the rest of the team stayed together and that is also a very positive thing. We are always talking here about transfers but it’s also a very positive thing that we kept our players and they are in a good place at the moment. I said many times already: Jürgen [Klopp] left the team in a good place and we are trying to build from there and last season was also a season where they could win a trophy with this team. So, we are hoping and aiming, of course, for the same this season. It’s not going to be easy because there are a lot of good and strong teams in the Premier League that also strengthened their squads, but we are looking forward to the challenge.

On the futures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk…

I don’t think this is the place to talk about contracts but I can assure you that they are in the squad tomorrow.

On the excitement for a first ‘meaningful’ game…

For me the games in pre-season meant something as well; although you don’t get points for it, but I think it’s important to prepare the team for the Premier League. Now we’re excited to start the season against a promoted team that did really, really well in the last few years under their manager. It’s interesting to see what’s going to happen tomorrow.

On how hard it is to prepare to face a team that has been out of the Premier League for 22 years…

Not harder than if you had to prepare for a team that was in the Premier League for 22 years, because we also saw their games from last season and we saw their games in pre-season. So I don’t think that is more difficult than if they would have been in the Premier League for a long time. It is true that a newly promoted club, there is a lot of positivity around a club like this. As people told me, every game in the Premier League is going to be an intense game and there are no easy games. That’s something that we can expect tomorrow as well – a promoted team that only had a lot of positives in recent years will come up against us [and are] really looking forward to it. But we are really looking forward to the game as well.

On what excites him most about the season and job ahead…

I don’t think ‘excites me the most’ is the right word but as a manager, wherever you are you try to do the same thing: you try to implement your playing style to the players. And fortunately for me, a lot of this playing style the players already knew because many things have stayed the same, and we try to adjust where we can to improve the team a bit. And this is what you are constantly working on, and this gives me and my staff a lot of energy because the players have a lot of energy and try to implement the things we want and try to keep the things the same like they were. That gives energy to us as well, that the players really buy into it and want to make the best out of what we’re trying to present to them.

On how far along the adaptation process is with the squad…

I think everywhere around the world in pre-season, everybody is really positive about everything. But it’s a good thing that it’s here as well. How far are we? I said many times already that we are not changing everything, actually we don’t change that much because many things were really good. Then, where are we? I think it would be perfect if after four or five weeks of pre-season you are already close to perfection, which is very difficult to reach. And some of them have only been in for 10 or 12 days. But like I said, many things have stayed the same and the players have stayed the same. So, we are ready for the game tomorrow. If you talk about where in the end we want to go to, there are still a lot, lot, lot of things to improve. But I think if I’m here for three, four, five, six or seven years I will still give you the same answer, that there are a lot of things to improve, because it’s impossible for players to reach perfection. We’re always aiming for this but there are always ways to improve the team.

On Alexander-Arnold’s ‘best position’ and his plans for him...

I think a position for a player is always related to the team and it’s also my aim to bring the best out of the player. But the first aim is to bring the best out of the team and it helps if you also bring the best out of a player then. Trent is known for playing as a right full-back for all his life, I think, and when he was a youngster he played in midfield. In the modern game, you see a lot of full-backs going into the midfield – that is what he did last season once in a while and I saw him playing in the Euros [in] the midfield. So, I think he is capable of playing both positions really good and then it’s up to me where I think he could help the team the most.

On the argument ‘if you don't strengthen then you are weaker than you were before’...

That argument I don’t understand. If you don’t strengthen the team, you become weaker? That’s a bit weird because normally you would either stay the same. I truly believe that the training ground [is where] you can help players and the team to improve. That is also what happened here in recent years, that the training ground really helped the team to improve. Maybe what you mean is if the clubs around do strengthen the team then maybe they become better. But it’s not always true that if you bring in new players the team becomes stronger, because I also believe in general that every player in the team needs to have perspective on playing time. If you keep bringing players in, sometimes the energy in the group goes down as well. But like I said many times, we – and with ‘we’ I mean Richard and me – are trying to strengthen the squad. If we think we’ve found someone, we try to bring him in. And then unfortunately the one we thought could help us said no. But [in] the background Richard is still trying to improve the team. But my main focus at the moment is fully on Ipswich.

On Luis Diaz...

When I walked in here, there was a screen from Sky Sports and I said, ‘The whole day it’s talking about football?’ So, there is a lot of speculation constantly in this country, that is clear for me. So it’s not a surprise if I hear you saying there is also [that about] Luis Diaz. Is there any player they don’t talk about? A few, OK! His future is with us because I like a lot what I’ve seen in the last 10 days that he’s in and I saw the same last season. He’s had a big impact on Liverpool seasons and I’m hoping that he has a big impact in the upcoming season as well.

On whether he has everyone fit in the squad ahead of the Ipswich game...

Yes, we have.

On how to ‘get the best out of Darwin Nunez’...

Bring him as much as we can into scoring positions. Again, I think every individual benefits from team performance. If we, as a team, can bring our attackers – not only him but also the other ones – as much as we can in dangerous positions, these players will score goals. That’s what we’ve seen in pre-season, where we even scored goals out of smaller chances. It’s up to us to bring him or Diogo [Jota] or other attackers as much as we can into promising positions for them and then he, like all the others, will score their goals.