ReactionPress conference: Arne Slot's verdict on Liverpool's win at Girona and return of Alisson
Arne Slot was satisfied with the result but not the performance as Liverpool beat Girona 1-0 away in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
The Reds made it six straight victories in the league phase thanks to a converted penalty from Mohamed Salah in the 63rd minute at Estadi Montilivi.
Alisson Becker marked his return from a two-month lay-off through injury by producing a number of crucial saves during the first half to deny the La Liga side and ensure the game was goalless at the break.
Read a summary of Slot's post-match press conference below…
On maintaining the 100 per cent record in the Champions League...
If you ask me about all the six games, I'm really pleased with all the results, I am really pleased with the five [other] games with the way we played. I'm far from pleased about the performance tonight.
On what he didn't like about Liverpool's performance...
A lot, but especially two things. If you play against a team that has such a good idea about football, knows how to bring the ball out from the back – like some other teams we faced recently, like [Manchester] City or Real Madrid – then you need to be so intense if you want to make it difficult for them. But if every time you are waiting a few seconds before you press, and if you do press you are so easily outplayed, then this team can cause you a lot of problems. That's what they've shown throughout the whole Champions League campaign, except for [against] PSV Eindhoven away.
I almost feel sorry for them because they deserved so much more in this Champions League campaign than the three points they have until now. But we have an incredible goalkeeper. The other part was every time we lost the ball we were not aggressive enough, so every time we lost the ball they could almost every time go all the way to our goal, having a shot or a blocked shot, and then we could attack again. Hardly any control at all over the game; maybe the second half was a bit better, but then I am trying to be positive.
On the difference in the second half...
Maybe the first five or 10 minutes they went on the counter-attack one or two times still. Like so many times this season, if a team plays us they do something different than they do [in] all the other games. We might see this as a compliment for what we've done until now and the quality of our players. But they played without a nine, a bit similar like [Bayer] Leverkusen. So, it wasn't always easy for us to press them well. But I don't think it had that much to do with tactics, because if it's only tactics in terms of how you have to defend then it's when they have the ball, when they bring the ball out from the back. But if we lose the ball and they could also go all the way to our goal, that tells me that in general we were by far not aggressive enough without the ball. Maybe the goal helped us most, that we scored a goal from a penalty.
On Darwin Nunez...
What I can agree on is that he missed a few chances. Then it's always the question: does this have anything to do with low confidence or is this a situation where he's in at the moment? I think every striker all around the world has periods where every ball goes in, and sometimes he has a period where you try so hard but you're not able to score. The good thing is that we have many players that can score for us – today Mo again. I would have loved to see Darwin score because I think every striker wants to score [and] needs goals – that's why I kept him in for quite a long time. He was a threat but unfortunately he couldn't score. Yes, Alisson made a lot of saves, but I think if you make highlights of this game we will all see a few chances that we had as well, which is normal. What is not normal is that we concede so many chances.
On the display of Alisson and not looking like he'd been away...
No, he definitely didn't. I said a bit of a joke that maybe the players wanted to see how fit he really was, so to give him so much work. But, of course, that was not our plan. He showed again today why I said so many times that he's our first goalkeeper. That has nothing to do with Caoimhin [Kelleher] – he did so, so well. But Alisson has been so important for this club for so many years, for his country as well. [He] showed today that he's probably one of the best, in my opinion the best goalkeeper in the world. And let's hope he can keep continuing to bring these performances. Let's hope even more that he can stay fit.
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