Jürgen, quite a bit of team news to get through.
First of all, Andy Robertson, how is he, what's the prognosis for him?
I think the decision we go towards [is] surgery.
There was a little chance that he could try it without.
But after talking to pretty much all experts,
it looks like surgery will be the best thing, especially in the long-term, definitely.
And that means he is out for a while.
Don't know exactly how long, but shoulder surgery is not an easy one.
From my experience, you can train pretty quickly again but not football-specific,
because you have to be careful, challenges and all these kind of things.
So, yeah, he will be out for a while.
Any other potential returnees this week? Thinking Cody Gakpo, Jota, Bajcetic?
[Diogo] Jota was not injured, he was suspended.
Diogo is available again if nobody tells me differently.
Cody trained once with the team, so we have to see how that goes for tomorrow.
Stefan [Bajcetic] out, Thiago [Alcantara] out...
Who else?
Oh, Ben Doak, from Scotland [U21s] has a little muscle thing,
so we have to see, but is not available for the weekend.
Luke Chambers trains today, first time again after a little ligament issue.
Conor Bradley, still out. That's it.
Obviously Curtis is still suspended,
so Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Gravenberch and Endo
have never played in a Merseyside derby,
does it make a difference that their first experience will come at Anfield?
Thinking back to last season with Cody Gakpo,
his first goal for the club came in his first Merseyside derby.
Yeah, the Merseyside derby is a special game, no doubt about that,
but it’s a high-pressure game if you want and they all played them.
Macca played it for sure [at] the World Cup with Argentina.
Dom played Serbia recently in a super-important, high-pressure game,
so they are all used to the kind of game.
To the exact game not, that’s true.
But actually, I cannot change that now.
I cannot show them a movie of derbies and say that’s how it will be,
because they were all different as well.
So I don’t think we should make it too big for them.
I think they are ready for it, no doubt about that.
And that’s how it is with changes, when really experienced players leave the club
then you have to make your own experience again yourself, and that’s what we do.
You've lost just one Merseyside derby in 18,
so what are you expecting from Sean Dyche and Everton this time?
When was that?
That was Carlo Ancelotti in charge a few years ago.
Ah. One too much!
Yeah, but they were all different, all difficult for different reasons.
And I don’t think it makes too much sense to compare now other derbies with this derby,
because it’s a different team, different manager.
Let’s have a look at the facts,
and the facts are that Everton is in a good moment.
It was a difficult finish to last season but successful because they stayed up;
and then the start was not that easy, but since three or four weeks they get the results.
Before that they had already performances.
Shots on goal, stuff like this, not always an awful lot of possession
but knowing how to find the goal and the direction.
That’s good and you can see it.
It’s clear Burnley in the best moments were a super-difficult team to play,
and you can see that again, similar things. Different players, similar things.
And it’s good, it’s difficult to defend.
You have to be ready for second-ball fights, we have to be ready for runs in behind,
we have to be ready for a compact defence -
all these kinds of things.
It will be a tough one, derbies always were tough,
Premier League games always are tough.
We just have to make sure we are in this football understanding
and that we are patient enough, all of us - fans as well -
we have to make sure we just put a proper shift in,
take the fight and go for it.
In the absence of Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas likely to be involved more,
he showed his commitment signing a new contract recently.
Just how important is it having players like that who are ready to perform
when called upon and ready to be involved in the team?
Yeah, very. Very important, that’s clear. It always was like this.
Thank God it’s not only Kostas we have for that
because otherwise with the amount of games we have
we would already be again a bit short.
But we have Joe Gomez who can play the position, we have Luke Chambers
and other young boys who show up in training quite frequently.
We had them now in the international break training week until yesterday,
when the other boys were not in yet.
You see the young kids really showing up, and that’s good,
there’s a lot of talent in there.
You need options, that’s clear,
and Kosti is definitely the most experienced on the position, so that’s good.
But he cannot play all the games from now on so we need other options as well,
and that’s what we have to make sure: that we can use all of them.
The absence of Curtis Jones as well,
in terms of that midfield do you still feel as if you're in the trial phase
of working out whose best position is where;
Mac Allister in the six, who's playing alongside him;
are you enjoying that challenge of the midfield?
I don’t think we are in a finding phase really but it’s early in the season,
so who knows who will play from next week on, on which position,
because it depends to availability and stuff like this.
But the way we play, it’s definitely possible.
You only talk about a player on a position, that he has not this or that
and these kinds of things, when as a team you are not compact enough,
when we talk about defending. That’s how it is.
Of course Macca can play the position, there’s no doubt about it.
We can play a different system, we can play with a double pivot if you want,
that might be then two eights rather than two sixes.
That’s the situation, but there are really plenty of things
and that’s not my problem at all in the moment,
that I think about that and wake up at night and think, "Who can we put there?"
Endo played again two really good games for Japan, coming back.
It’s just a tricky selection because they came back yesterday, what is that,
like an easy session - coming in, warming up,
rondo and then you send them in again.
We have to wait [to see] how they feel, we have to talk to them.
It’s nothing to do with how it was four weeks ago, it’s always different.
We tried to organise the travelling slightly better this time, that hopefully helped.
So it’s not a problem who can play where,
it’s just we have to make sure we find the right players
who are able for the intensity of that game,
because obviously Everton trained [with] nearly a full squad,
obviously not all of them but they had the majority of the players together.
So we have to make sure we can really keep that intensity level that is needed in a derby.
Jürgen, great record in Merseyside derbies,
what's happened in the past obviously doesn't dictate what happens in the future,
but what do you think are the key factors in you having a record like that?
Never thought about it.
It’s rather uncomfortable if you tell me about my good record,
because I could not be less interested in what happened, really.
What does it mean?
You won a game last week, you won a game five weeks ago, a year ago,
10 years ago, who cares? It’s really not important.
What we always try to make sure [is] we don’t think about these kind of things -
records and these kind of things. We make sure we are really ready for the game.
We understand the importance of the game,
we understand the pressure that comes with it, that’s how it is.
I can’t remember one moment when I said, "Oh, this weekend is the derby…"
and then enjoyed that thought. It is just not happening.
There’s a lot of intensity, even before the first ball is kicked,
and that is what you have to make sure - that you channel that in the right areas,
that with all the extra motivation from outside you make sure
you really play the way you want to play,
because that gives you a chance to win a football game.
If you want to just play a game the other team is asking for then OK,
you always react, you always react.
We have to push through our own thing in moments.
They definitely deserve the respect because they do really well.
Calvert-Lewin is back and obviously that is super-helpful,
a super-important player to them.
Doucoure looks like [he is] back to his best.
Around him, with Harrison and McNeil on the wings, that’s real quality.
In the middle, Gueye couldn’t play, but then Onana, Garner...
talent, real talent there.
Last line, super-experienced,
and with Branthwaite now a really good left-footed centre-half.
That’s a good team, and then England’s No.1 in the goal,
a really good team. That’s what you think about.
I understand the derby, but I cannot prepare it like a one-off game,
we have to make sure that we play to our best,
and if we can do that then we are a really difficult opponent.
And if we are a difficult opponent, then we can win the game,
and if we do that, then it’s fine. That’s all we are thinking about.
Everton look to have a genuine threat in the wide areas,
Harrison, McNeil, and because of the way Liverpool play,
Kostas will get into advanced positions,
is that something you'll try and balance out, because you don't want to leave space?
You speak about football like Everton gets on the ball while Kostas is up front,
and we don't react to that.
I never understood that. It's not only you, it's in general -
"If this happens and he is one-on-one with him..."
It's football, it can happen.
But if Kostas is at the left corner flag,
and on his side probably then the winger is high up,
on the other side the ball must be there somewhere?
So we cannot look football like that - or I can't, at least.
In the challenges, it's very important that we win them,
that's the key message always before a football game.
Search for the challenge, find it and win it.
That's really important, if somebody is 80 yard away from the player he should mark
and we as a group don't react... I can't see that happening.
But besides that, they have a lot of strong players in a lot of areas,
but we have pretty good players as well,
and we should not forget that, I want to make sure we bring that on the pitch as well.
When we do the analysis, I will get all the information we need,
but then we have to make sure we are ourselves, that's super-important.
It was a proud moment for Harvey Elliott captaining the England U21s for the first time,
how much do you think he's benefitted
from the leadership of Virgil, Trent, Mo, to name a few?
Well, a lot, it's more Harvey since he's here...
..grew up, matured, became a man,
[or] is on the way to become a man, and is just a really good player for us.
It was definitely a proud moment for him and if you would know him a little bit better
then you could imagine how proud it made him and his family.
If you are a good footballer and young and smart then you take...
Not sure you need advice, but you take the right role models in the right moment
and use the things you see, the things you hear.
That is what Harvey is definitely doing, but on this way you should not forget
we are all different, and so you have to make your own development,
[which] is very important as well.
How you see life, how you understand the things happening around you.
He is in a really good way, I have to say.
Played really well for England, played well for us in a lot of moments,
has still space for improvement, he knows that, and we are working on that.
But I am really happy he came back with the smile on the face he had
when he came in here.
We were asking him if he was still wearing the armband - he wasn’t!
No, all good, and it was a really, really nice thing.
When I saw it, I thought, "OK, that means a lot to him."
Jürgen, you've got another 12:30 kickoff after an international break,
you said you've done things a little differently this time,
the South American players played Wednesday morning UK time,
so what have you done differently?
That’s what we always do.
First time it didn’t work out because of a miscommunication with other clubs.
So we booked flights, better flights, brought them all together,
picked them up wherever they played so they didn’t have to take
the commercial flights from here to there,
which is obviously pretty tiring after 100 minutes of football,
then they leave you at an airport and you have to make sure
you get your connecting flight and stuff like this.
We are pretty good at that usually,
because we had enough opportunities to practise it.
This time it was much better, so the boys were pretty quickly after the game on a plane
and could fly straight to England.
That makes a massive difference.
What we can do, we always try to do.
First time it didn’t work out because it is pretty expensive,
you cannot pay all this for [chartered] planes all the time,
so usually we share it with other clubs and this time that worked out pretty well.