- Jürgen, good afternoon. - Hello.
This week the government has said that Premier League clubs should help EFL teams
before the government do, and I just wondered what your thoughts on that were,
do you think that's the right way to go about it,
and do you think Premier League clubs should do that,
help clubs lower down the football pyramid in this country?
In general, I think that people in a better position should help people
in a less good position, 100 per cent.
For me, I don't understand the structure 100 per cent.
In Germany, the first and second league is in the same...
The DFL in Germany is Bundesliga 1 and 2,
so they're together and they share the problems, if you want,
and that maybe makes things slightly easier sometimes.
Yeah, it's difficult, I don't think there's a general answer.
I think people in a better position should help other people,
but the position in this moment is not easy for all clubs, as we know.
I don't really know how the government finds time to think about that,
I thought they have enough to do, but I get it,
football should try to help themselves, ourselves, however you would say it.
I agree on that, 100 per cent.
The squad showed its strength last night, extremely good performance, great goals,
lots of young players impressing as well, but notably no Rhian Brewster,
I just wondered if you had any update on his situation,
have you had any inquiries
and do you expect him to leave before the end of the transfer window?
Look, it should not surprise you, transfers and these kinds of things,
we don't really speak about transfer rumours or anything else.
He wasn't in the squad, you can make of it what you want,
there's nothing really to say, otherwise we'd have to talk constantly
about these kinds of things and we don't do that. So, yeah, no news.
Jürgen, as you know this is going out on the Football Show on Sky Sports News,
and there's a special guest today in Ralf Rangnick, a man you know very well,
he is very keenly listening in, he's passed me a question to ask you.
Specifically, he says they're all missing Naby Keita in Leipzig,
he says the pair of you spoke a lot about him before you signed him,
and he wants to know how you see Naby's development
since you brought him to Liverpool?
So, Ralf is on the show in this moment , or what?
He is, he's listening in right now.
Tschüss!
Yes, Naby is doing really well. For some reasons it was in the beginning...
Well, not really in the beginning, in the very beginning it was very good.
I didn’t speak a lot to him about football,
I just wanted to let him do his natural stuff, so that was really good.
Then I started coaching him and he got worse!
That’s maybe not the main reason, but then he was a bit unlucky with injuries,
that was the main reason.
Naby had to learn the language,
to feel really settled in the squad and all these kind of things.
He is doing really well, we take care of him.
He came on last night [against Lincoln City],
he played now the first two league games, so everything is fine.
But from my point of view, I hope you all know Ralf Rangnick,
he is one of the best - if not the best - German coaches actually.
He did a lot of good stuff at different clubs, changed the whole club,
at proper football teams, so... Nice to have you in England!
I don't see you, but nice to see you!
He speaks very highly of you as well, Jürgen , thank you.
We met from time to time. We have a similar idea of football, I think.
Hello, Jürgen. I just wonder if you can give us an insight
into what it's like facing a Mikel Arteta Arsenal team
compared to some of the Arsenal sides you've faced before?
Oh, I'm not sure if I should compare it, but Mikel Arteta showed in a short period of time
that he seems to be an exceptional football manager, obviously,
because the team he sets up now - the structure of the team -
is absolutely exceptional.
You can see the balance between defence and offence is really good,
you can see a lot of things which obviously are pretty helpful in football -
good organisation but freedom for the players as well,
uses the players in the right positions.
I have to say, since he’s there he did a pretty impressive job, to be honest,
and changed I think the whole mood in the club.
I don’t know exactly what the mood was before he arrived,
but I don’t think a lot of people thought at the end of the season
he would have won any competition or something like that -
and he did that by winning the FA Cup and winning the [FA Community Shield].
That’s pretty impressive, I have to say.
So it’s a tough, tough, tough opponent, 100 per cent.
And in terms of this Arsenal side,
they seem at their best playing against the better teams in the league.
Why do you think that is, Jürgen, what is it about this side the top teams find so difficult?
Oh, it's the defensive structure, 100 per cent, so they defend properly.
All the players are involved in their defending, they defend probably in a 5-4-1,
which, when you have quality players in the team,
is - for the other team - a pretty tricky situation.
Then with the speed they have for the counter-attack,
that can cause you some trouble.
That’s the situation, it’s pretty simple.
We played them now twice.
In the [Community Shield] game it was an open game
and we were unlucky in moments and stuff like this, all that is clear.
In the league game I think we helped them slightly [be] on their toes,
because that night we presented the goals on a plate -
if that makes sense in English - or we made presents.
I think that was one of the few games
where in moments we dropped concentration;
it was late last season and Arsenal were really waiting for these kind of things.
That game, we were really good apart from two or three moments;
they scored, we didn’t score often enough and that’s why we lost the game,
but it was actually a good game.
And that night, I think we could have won,
but we didn’t and we accept that obviously.
I can say a lot of positive things about Arsenal, because it’s true,
but I think we still have a chance on Monday night.
- Hi, Jürgen, how are you? - Good.
60 matches unbeaten at Anfield, a run stretching back to April 2017,
do you now go into home games not expecting to lose?
No.
Actually the only moment when I think about that number
is when somebody asks me about it.
And actually, when I answer this question I forget it immediately.
Again, because I’m absolutely not interested.
We did what we did, we tried to win football games.
We did that at home in different circumstances;
we won football games at home at night time, at lunchtime,
in different moments, with supporters, without supporters.
It’s our home - we feel really well there, that’s true,
but it’s no secret recipe or whatever that we have.
We never expect to lose, to be honest, but we don’t expect either to win.
We know we have to work and we want to deserve three points.
That’s what we want. That’s it pretty much, nothing else to say about [it].
And last weekend there were 44 goals in the Premier League,
a record across one weekend, so obviously everyone now wants to score goals,
you've got probably the best front three in the league and you've added Diogo Jota,
and you're an attacking coach, so do I deduce from all of that
that your team are going to get even better this year than they were last year,
where they were pretty much unplayable for most of the year anyway?
I don't know, maybe gave it a try, but I don't think we were unplayable last year!
Or it didn't feel like this, over the whole season,
it was just always really tough, really hard, really intense,
and that's what we expect this year as well. I don't know if we can be better,
I don't know if last year we were better than the year before
just because we had two points more or became champions.
We always tried to do the right thing in the right moment,
and, yes, we are an offence-orientated team, but without a very good defensive structure
you have absolutely no chance, so...
We won one game 2-0 in the Premier League, which you saw obviously,
in the end against 10 men of Chelsea, the other one was 4-3,
before that game, or after probably, people said,
"Up front they score but defensively they struggle."
Neither/nor, to be honest, we don't have a proper defensive struggle,
and it's not that we can't stop scoring or something,
It’s really that we try to do our absolute best in each game,
and that’s something I loved in both [league] games so far,
and something I loved especially last night.
Because if the team from last night would have worn a different shirt,
I still would have known it is us.
I like that a lot because this kind of identity,
we really want to make sure that everybody can see that.
Hi, Jürgen.
Just want to check on the fitness issues, who are you looking at getting back?
I think Joe should be back today in training,
that’s what everybody told me - and nobody told me something different since.
'Billy the Kid' [Koumetio] is back in training.
Joel not, pretty much. Hendo not yet, that was clear -
this game is for sure too early.
I think that’s it, pretty much.
Do you have a name in mind?
No, no.
And on Thiago, he's only played 45 minutes for you,
would he be ready to start?
We will see. We have a few days to train,
some boys have to recover from last night, so we will see how we set up v Arsenal.
I have an idea, but why should I make the decision today
when we have time until Monday?
But he's 'in contention', yeah? For sure.
Yeah, let's see.