Press conference'Expecting an open game' – Arne Slot on Lille analysis, Nunez challenge and more

The Reds top the league-phase standings having won each of their six fixtures so far this term, while their Ligue 1 visitors sit eighth with 13 points.

Lille’s run has included victories over Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid, with Slot highly respectful of the challenge they will now pose his team.

The Liverpool head coach covered a range of topics as he previewed the European fixture during a press conference at Anfield – read a summary below…

On Darwin Nunez…

I think the most difficult [thing] in football for a team, but also for an individual, is to find consistency. Only a few players in the world are able to be at the same level every three days in a row. And then there’s a big, big, big group of players that are able to play very well many times but not every single time – I think he is one of the players that belongs to the group that is good many, many, many times. The next step for him – it would be nice – [is] if he can go into the bracket of the five, six, seven or eight players in the world that are every three days outstanding. I do know we have also a few players that are every three days of a very high standard. It’s a nice challenge for him to go to that group of players as well.

On what importance he puts on finishing top of the league-phase table…

The most important thing every time we go out there, especially in front of our own fans, [is] we want to win a game. With this new set-up, you think that ending up No.1 is the best position to end up with, but because it is such a strange league table – because, for example, I think I’m right, if I look at Paris Saint-Germain, every week I think they have the hardest team to face. So, they are quite low on the table, which is not their quality, but they are low. So maybe if you end up No.1 you can face them. Then it’s a disadvantage.

So, I’m not looking at the league table in a way of, ‘If we are No.1 we probably have the easiest team to face’ because that is impossible to say because of this weird format; ‘weird’ I don’t mean in a negative way, but this strange format we are having now. Being on top maybe doesn’t tell you you’re the best team. Being 24th maybe doesn’t tell you you’re No.24 in terms of quality. It has a lot to do with the teams you faced. So, we want to win but not from an idea about [that] it will probably give us then the best lead-up for the rest of the campaign.

On his thoughts on Lille’s performances in the Champions League and if he is surprised by them…

I’m impressed, not surprised but impressed. Not surprised because I think it was two or three years ago I played [against] the current manager when he was at Rennes, with my former club. Then, I was impressed by the way his team played. Yes, of course, a few weeks ago when I didn’t see them playing yet, I was like, ‘Oh, they beat Atletico Madrid, surprise; they beat Real Madrid, surprise.’ But now of course, I saw many games of them and now I’m definitely not surprised anymore but impressed, because they’ve deserved every single point they got until now.

I just said something about the league table; for them it’s definitely not because they’ve faced easy competition. They faced Sporting Lisbon when [Ruben] Amorim was still there and Sporting Lisbon were impossible to beat. OK, they lost that one. But they faced them, they faced Juve, they faced Atletico Madrid, they faced Real Madrid. And now they are facing us and the next game is going to be difficult for them as well because then they face Feyenoord, my former club. So they haven’t been lucky with the fixtures they had, so that’s the reason why I’m so impressed with them in the Champions League. And an unbeaten run of 21 games probably tells you even more.

On Liverpool’s attacking output increasing in the last few months…

I think I said [previously] that our performance stats, so in terms of running, have increased. Especially in the Brentford game because it was a tough game because Brentford are a team that are really fit as well, [that’s] one of the reasons why they are so successful. You tell me now that our attacking stats have gone up; probably true, I think we’ve scored more goals in the last five, six, seven, eight, nine games than we did before. But we’ve conceded a few as well, so we’ve needed these goals maybe more than we did in the beginning of the season. So, I don’t really see an argument where I can come up with why that has changed. The only thing I can say is that we are working longer together with the team and we know even better what we want when we have the ball. But [we] also need to know better what we want without the ball. But we do concede more, so it’s not always a straight line going up or going down.

On Lille’s main strengths and whether he is expecting an open game…

It is difficult for me to answer that question because many managers have changed their game plan against us compared to the games they have played before, in the last few months. But if I just look at how they’ve played in their last games and what their playing style is, I’m expecting an open game tomorrow because they are pressing every team, if it’s Olympique Marseille or Real Madrid or whatever team they face, they just press them high. They are not afraid to bring the ball out from the back.

So, for us it’s going to be a change of styles compared to the recent teams we have faced, although Brentford also wanted to press us really high but also afterwards went to a real low block. But the three or four teams we faced before didn’t want to bring the ball out from the back. And that’s what Lille is doing, that’s what they are really good at, so that’s what I expect. But I expected that from a few teams we have faced in the last three or four games as well, but they changed their game plan against us. You have to ask their manager if he’s planning to play the same style or planning to change it!

On whether Ryan Gravenberch’s minutes will need to be managed in the second half of the season…

Maybe we don’t have someone that is exactly similar to Ryan but I think that is [the case] almost for all of them. So, Dom [Szoboszlai] is unique in his own way, Mo [Salah] is unique in his own way. We have of course Cody Gakpo, I don’t see him similar to Lucho [Luis Diaz] – similar position but not similar style of player. So, every player we have is unique in his own way and for Ryan it’s the same thing. We have players like Wata [Endo] who can play there, we have Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] who can play there – he played there against Forest in the last half-hour. And even Curtis Jones can play there.

There’s always a balance. If you play them a lot and all of a sudden you drop points, you played them too much. And if they keep doing well, everybody is saying, ‘Yeah, the secret to success is that they always play with the same.’ And I’ve said many times already, it’s not about playing at 12.15, it’s not about these things, it’s about the competition you face and do we play to our standards? But I understand that to make it a bit more simple for everyone to understand, it’s about they play too much or too little – that is something we accept.

On if Diogo Jota’s current injury absence provides an ‘opportunity’ for Nunez to have a run in the team…

• Arne Slot issues Diogo Jota and Joe Gomez fitness update

I don’t think it’s the first time that he’s in a situation like this. Even this season he has been in the situation, Jota has been out when in the Chelsea game someone hit him so hard that he was out for five, six, seven, eight weeks I think. That was a similar moment and I know from the past that he’s had a long run of games with Jürgen [Klopp] as well. But he is probably, as you guys say, in a good place now because he scored two.

Of course it’s simple: at the moment we’ve got four attackers that are top-fit and able to start the game, and Darwin is one of them. Then the fifth one is Federico [Chiesa], and then the sixth one, he’s not ready to start 90 yet in my opinion but is coming closer and closer to be able to do so. The reason why he isn’t is because he hasn’t had many minutes yet. So it’s not about him, it’s about me not giving him so many minutes, so that’s difficult for him then all of a sudden to go from five minutes to 90 minutes. That increases the chance for Darwin of course to get more playing time if one of the six is injured, especially if it’s a No.9.