PreviewWolves, Luis Diaz and season so far: Every word from Arne Slot's pre-match press conference

The Reds travel to Molineux in the Premier League on Saturday evening, and the head coach previewed the clash by answering questions from reporters at the AXA Training Centre.

See everything he had to say below…

• Injury news: Latest on Alisson Becker fitness ahead of Wolves v Liverpool

On the form of the forwards so far this season...

For me, it says two things. It says, one, these players have a lot of quality and, second of all, it says the team is always creating chances for the players we are selecting for that game. If we play Cody [Gakpo] or if we play Lucho [Luis Diaz], the team is just creating the chances for these individuals and because they have so much quality they can promote this to assists or goals. That's what it says to me.

On keeping the squad sharp...

That's the positive thing about playing so many games; these players will always play a lot of games. I think they understand they can't play every game unless it's absolutely necessary to keep them fit and sharp and to keep them ready to perform like they do. As long as they accept the situation as it is – and that is what they are doing at the moment because they have good numbers and I see them smile a lot as well – then it's a very positive thing for us. That's also one of the things of my job – I have to keep them alert and happy in the position they are in.

On new contracts...

You are just trying to find another way of asking! I am very happy that these three players [Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk] are in my team at the moment. There are a lot of games to be played in this season, especially in the upcoming week and weeks. I'm really happy that I can select them and let's see what the future brings.

On how pleased he is with the squad's ability to adapt...

I think I said it on many occasions already, I am very happy with the squad I inherited. Not only because of their quality but maybe even more about the culture Jürgen [Klopp] left behind. All of these players are team players, so they accept their role even when they are not playing. They always want to work hard for the team first. It's been a privilege to inherit a squad like I inherited from Jürgen.

On Wolves' season so far...

I don't think it represents the way they played and they had a very tough fixture list in the first five games – I think they played Arsenal away, Newcastle away, [Aston] Villa away, Chelsea at home, so that's [a] more difficult schedule than we had, for example. You always have to take this into account. Of course I had to watch a few games of them because we play them tomorrow and I can see that even the games were very tight and they deserved more than they got a few times. I think they will be fine during the season – hopefully not tomorrow – but they will be fine in the end of the season.

On giving up chances and relying on the goalkeeper...

The last thing you say is very important for us in the last two games – that we have a lot of quality in that position. On the other end, we create a lot, a lot of chances as well. But in an ideal world, we don't concede as much as we did in the last two games. But if there is one big difference for me between my former club and the competition I worked in and this competition, [it] is that every team has so many quality players in their squad and in their team that they are always able to create chances as well. So, you also have to give credit to the teams we face and the quality they have.

But we need to do better in that aspect if we want to keep clean sheets more and more often. We keep emphasising on that. One of the reasons why the other team doesn't score that easy, it's also because we have a good goalkeeper. But if you every time count the bodies that are inside our 18-yard box the moment the other team gets a chance, that's also a real positive thing and it makes it more difficult for the other team to score as well.

On how to address the question of 'doing better defensively'...

It's mostly about working on it collectively. But in the last game, I think a few chances also came from set-pieces. The goal they [West Ham United] scored also came from a set-piece and their second big chance in the game was also from a set-piece and then we lost one time the ball so easy where [Crysencio] Summerville could go on a one-v-one. But as always, it's always about the collective idea – that is what we have to improve. Then the individual quality that we have helps, of course, to become better as a team as well.

On what he's learned about his squad in the last week...

I said it earlier, I learned day by day more about the players because of course you know their quality, you know what they can do on the training ground, but we haven't faced many setbacks yet, although the [Nottingham] Forest game was a setback for us. So, you always want to learn how do individual players and we as a team react on setbacks, how do we react if we play a fantastic game with a great score, how do we react three days later? You have to learn day by day – and that's what I'm doing. And then you try to adjust wherever you can to trigger them to get the best out of themselves because it's all about offence, defence and all these things we try to work on. But also every time you try to find a trigger for them to be on top of their game every single time they step out onto the pitch.

On whether anything has 'changed' with Diaz after a strong start to the season...

That's difficult for me to judge because I wasn't here, of course, last season. It's still a small sample size that we are talking about. I said before also when it comes to us winning quite a lot of games that until now we've faced almost all teams [that] are in the bottom [half] of the table. Of course we expect [Manchester] United to be on the top of the table in the end, maybe not on top, but in the top of the table, so there's still a lot for us to prove. Maybe the fixture list helped us by this amount of goals the forwards scored. Let's see if we can keep scoring so many goals if the fixture list is getting harder and harder, starting tomorrow in a difficult away game against Wolves.

On whether he's done anything specific with Diaz going forward...

No, I don't think so. Not particularly with him. We train on a daily basis trying to get them as most we can in certain situations and then help them in the best possible way where to position themselves and what to do in certain situations. But it's mainly also in this last third of the pitch the quality of the player and the finishing he has. I think he always had this and I wasn't even that aware of the fact that [he scored eight league goals last season]. For me, he was someone who could score a goal and eight for his quality [is] not of his standards, I would say. I think he just comes back to his normal situation. Maybe he was a bit unlucky last season, but a player of his quality will always score a lot of goals in every season.

On Wolves starting games quickly and whether he has put any stress on the need for his team to begin well...

If you look at us, our games, I think it's always in a game the first 15 to 20 minutes both teams have a lot of energy and they are all very hard and try to get maximum energy in the start. Then after 10, 15, 20 minutes, the game mostly settles down and the team that, in my opinion, plays the best football gets the ball a lot and starts to play. But the first 15 to 20 minutes are always two teams that are doing this. When it comes to Wolves, I am not surprised that they go up because they play really good football. I think they've been really unlucky not getting the results they might've deserved.

Even last season because that game where Liverpool won, they were also 1-0 up and I think it took until the 85th minute where Robbo [Andy Robertson] scored a goal, which he doesn't do a lot. That was also a tough game for us. I think the players who played that game, almost all of them are still in the team, [they] know how tough it is to play over there. We need to be ready from the start but that you need to be in every game because, like I said, in the beginning it's always two teams full of energy trying to come out in the best possible way.

On Liverpool's start to the season and whether he is 'pleased' by what he has seen...

I think it's been a positive start, with a small disappointment of us losing at home against Nottingham Forest. I think every home game you lose is a disappointment, especially if it's not against a team that's competing for a top-four position, although you never know what Nottingham Forest is going to do this season. That was definitely a disappointment. But overall it's been a good start – not a perfect one because then we should've won the game I was just referring to.

But the style we play [and] the way we play is still very close to what you guys were used to for nine years, which is quite normal because we have almost all the same players like Jürgen had. Keeping results going is a good thing. Again, I have to mention about that the fixture list has been good to us, although you never know maybe in 17 or 18 games these teams that are now on the bottom side of the table maybe go up in the upcoming weeks or months. It's been a good start but not a perfect one.