PreviewEvery word from Arne Slot's press conference ahead of Crystal Palace v Liverpool

The Reds head coach previewed the Saturday lunchtime clash at Selhurst Park by answering a wide range of questions from reporters.

See everything he had to say at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning below…

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On how he sees the chance to go four points clear in the lunchtime kick-off, with games against Chelsea and Arsenal after the international break…

You always look at the first one and that's Crystal Palace. I think they already showed how tough of an opponent they are against the big teams, like [Manchester] United and Chelsea. In both situations they got a result. That's the first game and that's why it's the most important one, and a difficult one for us: 12.30 kick-off after playing on Wednesday evening late in the Champions League, facing again a team that has a whole week to prepare. But that is part of working at a top club, that we face those teams and we have to be ready for those teams. And that's what we are tomorrow. I don't look at this moment about one point, three points, four points; it's after the weekend then it's interesting to look at the league table and not after the game we've played.

On Ryan Gravenberch's progress and the numbers Mohamed Salah keeps producing…

I think why players play well has first of all to do with the quality they have as players. Mo has a lot of quality, Ryan has a lot of quality. Actually, every player that plays here has a lot of quality. Now it's up to us – and I say us because it's not only me and my staff, it's also the players – to play in the best possible way as a team and then individuals will do special things. It was an unbelievable finish from Mo [on Wednesday night] but the only reason he got the chance to finish was because Trent Alexander-Arnold made an overlapping run and that's why it opened up on the inside. And if you give that space to Mo, he can score a special goal. That's about his quality. It's about Ryan's quality, but the amount of times Virgil [van Dijk] or Ibou [Konate] play balls through to Ryan where Ryan can turn and play his balls towards all the good attackers we have, that makes it in my opinion a team performance, which is really good. Then as a result of that you see individuals playing well also.

On any updates regarding new contracts at the club…

I was hoping in your last question that you didn't use the word 'contract' because I was saying 'Trent is doing like this and he is doing like this…' It's the same boring answer as always and I could really understand if you ask me this once every two weeks but if you ask me this after two or three days again then you still get the same answer and people feel that I'm boring them! So, try it after the international break again!

On 'how much further' Gravenberch can improve…

If you look at all the signings we have made at this club in the past I don't know how many years, most players were under 24, 25. I think there is also a reason for this, because you expect players from 22, 23, especially if they come to a club like Liverpool and this environment and the way it works here, that you expect progress, more than you expect it probably from a player that is 33 or 34. Then it is not that big of a surprise if you bring the quality [of someone] like Ryan Gravenberch in that if you start to work with him, do the right programme and he has the teammates that he has, that he can progress. And that's what we are seeing at the moment. Now it's up to him to keep the standards as they are at this moment. That is a challenge because he, like all the others, has to play every three days. That is also a challenge for all of us, but also for him because he hasn't played a lot of games last season. I think now he already played more 90-minute games than he did in the past two seasons. So, interesting to see how he copes with it but until now he does really well.

On Palace's start to the season and the challenge he expects on Saturday…

I said many times when it comes to us and I said it also in relation to Wolves last week, that if you play six games it's so hard to judge the league table. The weird thing or maybe that's not weird, but they got some results against United and Chelsea, two top teams. The other results were not as they would have probably wanted it. Last season they finished really strong. Lost one or two good players, that's also clear. I said it about Wolves last week and I can say the same about this team, that they will do better during the season. Hopefully not tomorrow, of course.

On whether he thinks any of his players will need their minutes 'managed' over the next few weeks...

No, the first thing I look at is tomorrow and then we will wait and see if again we are the team where… I think you guys told me that we had 10 players playing all the minutes and the next one was five. I don't know if it's true but that's what you guys told me, so I have to assume it's true. Journalists always speak the truth, don't they? In England they do! I don't look forward yet towards the games that are coming after the international break. But the difference between this international break and the last one is this time we play a late kick-off [on] Sunday and last time on Saturday. It gives us one extra day of rest, which is always helpful, especially for the ones that come back with jet lag from South America.

On whether Darwin Nunez needs to 'adapt' to Liverpool's way of playing or vice versa...

It's both. I think it's the challenge we as staff always have to bring the best out of the individuals. We try to find different ways of positioning Darwin than Diogo [Jota] because they are not the same players. Their teammates also adjust to the player they are playing with. That's also what I as a manager have to do and also what we are doing. Yes, he didn't score in his last game because he was offside as well. When we bring him the chances, he is able to score but unfortunately we couldn't bring him that much in the position we want to. If I'm completely honest, which I like to be just as you journalists, even Diogo didn't have [many goals]. I think the most goals we score come from our wingers until now and Diogo scored two when we played West Ham when he played from the No.10 position. So maybe it's also for us something to look at, although we score a lot of goals, to bring our striker if it's Diogo or Darwin even more in positions to score.

On whether he's wary of people 'getting carried away about being top of the table'...

No, we are Liverpool, so players are used to being on top of the league. It would be very weird if a player at Liverpool is all of a sudden with his head in the clouds. So, no. But if we don't play well tomorrow, people will probably come up with that instead of saying that Palace did well or we maybe did other things wrong. But I don't see this and it would definitely not be normal – for two reasons. These players are experienced enough to understand the league table after six games as well and the schedule we have compared to some other teams. Second of all, Virgil, Ali [Alisson Becker], Trent, Robbo [Andy Robertson], Mo, they won the league here, they won the Champions League here. For them it's a nice thing to be on the top of the table, but I'm not expecting them to watch their mobile every second of the day seeing them being top of the table.

On 12.30pm kick-offs away from home...

In general, I think the league where I'm coming from in Holland, they are more aware and try to help the teams that play in Europe more than it happens over here. But to be fair to the English FA, our schedule here is so tight that it's so, so difficult. And I think it's something that has to do with the people that are sitting in front of me, so television stations – I have a feeling I do an interview every day. That's why we play at 12.30 because I think they can pick which team they want to have on at 12.30 and then it's nine out of 10 times Liverpool is included. I don't think it has so much to do with the 12.30 kick-off, for me it has to do [with] that every away game is difficult.

I showed them last week that 10 out of 19 away games last season didn't lead to a win. So you can then argue if it's 12.30 or is it just difficult to play an away game? And we can come up with Newcastle, Forest and there were two others where there were last-second winners. So, that shows you how difficult it is to play an away game, especially for us, in this league. Because we play so many times then at 12.30, people talk about 12.30. I think we have to talk about an away game and [how] that is difficult, because if 12.30 was a difficult time to perform then I'm a really stupid manager because we train every day at 12 o'clock. I don't see the idea behind it being that difficult performing at that time.

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