- Hi, Jürgen. - Hi, Vinny.
First of all, just bring us up to date on the injury situation, please.
Jordan Henderson and Andy Robertson, are they available,
is Sadio Mane fully fit, and we didn't see Fabinho at training last night.
So...
Hendo and Robbo didn’t train with the team yet, they did their recovery stuff,
rehab stuff and...didn’t train with the team yet.
It’s pretty close, [but] it will be a late, late, late, late decision about that.
Sadio is good, and Fab only came back late and he did recovery,
and so I hope he can train today, that’s the plan.
I didn’t hear anything different yet,
but in the end we all have to wait until tomorrow.
And the fact that Arsenal can go above you in the table,
what does that say about the importance of this game in terms of the top four,
but also the title race as well?
Yeah, it says a lot. Title race? It’s a bit early for that.
But to stay up there, we all know we need to stay in front of Arsenal.
To stay in and around the top of the league,
you need results, and we didn’t have enough good results in the last few weeks.
That’s why the situation is like it is.
Yes, we lost at West Ham,
but even if we would have drawn there the situation would not be massively different.
Obviously with a win, yes, but with the draw, not. That’s it.
We know we have to perform, we know we have to fight.
That’s pretty much the most important information probably:
we have to fight, because Arsenal are a really good football team.
But we are at Anfield and we have to show that and we have to make clear
that it’s a massive difference for all teams, and for us as well.
I’m really looking forward to it, it’s a while ago that we played here.
Now we have three home games in a row.
How I said, a while ago, and I can’t wait to start.
Hi, Jürgen, how are you?
Hi, Alex, I'm good, thanks.
After those disappointing results in the league, would you say it was a good time
for the international break to come, to reset and go again?
Nope.
I hate international breaks.
And it didn't help from an injury point of view.
If we would have played the week after, rather than three days later,
all players would have had two days off,
but with their international teams they trained pretty much through all of this,
because their coaches have their own targets,
and they very often think that they have to do physical work with them as well.
No, I don't like it, so it was not helpful - that was the question.
I would have loved to play the weekend after.
And Arsenal, bottom of the league at the start of the season,
now just one place below you,
what do you make of the way they've totally transformed their season?
Great, I'm not surprised.
The season starts and if you win your first match 4-0
you get asked questions about 'can you win the league' and stuff like this.
If you lose the game, then you are already in a relegation battle.
Obviously the quality of Arsenal, there was never a chance they'd stay where they were.
The way they came back is not normal,
because they've been on an incredible run of results since then,
and they're good. They know, they were lucky in one or two games
where it could have been different -
Crystal Palace played an incredible game against Arsenal, for example.
And then Arsenal equalised late.
If I remember it right. But these are the kind of thngs you need to put results together,
and that's what they did. They won a lot of games and that's where they are,
but we are not surprised that Arsenal are a really good football team.
We have to make sure that nobody forgets we are a really good football team as well.
We lost the last game, that's true, but it's long ago, two weeks ago,
so now we have a chance to do better and that's what we'll try.
Hi, Jürgen, I'm not going to ask you about Steven and Aston Villa,
but something he said yesterday about you,
that if you signed a lifetime contract right now he'd be happy for Liverpool and for you,
you have three years left on your contract until 2024,
would you look beyond that if that contract offer was there?
Wow! I thought Stevie said a lot of nice things and really smart things,
I watched the press conference, he was incredibly good.
He made sure, "Let's talk about Aston Villa and Steven Gerrard,
"not Liverpool and Steven Gerrard", and now you turn it into that question?
I don’t have to think about these kinds of things in the moment, thank God,
because we are in the middle of this season and that’s all we are focused on.
But I really think I spoke often enough [about it];
no other manager gets asked that often about things that happen
in two-and-a-half years or three years or four years.
At least, I don’t know [that they do].
I didn’t think about it until you asked me now and I don’t want to think now about it.
It’s all fine how it is.
It’s over when it’s over, but it’s far away from being over, so let’s focus on that.
Mikel Arteta said last year after you played that even if his side pressed perfectly,
you have Virgil van Dijk
who can play a 60-yard pass straight to the chest of Mo Salah.
When you talk about Van Dijk defensively, he's obviously a sensational player,
but from an attacking point of view how much of a weapon is he for your side?
Yeah, very important.
To mix up our build-up is very important,
he’s not the only one who can play these balls
but he can play these balls, that’s good.
I think our centre-halves improved in the last few years a lot in all the build-up situations.
They very often are the first ones who get the ball from the goalkeeper,
so it means that’s an important role.
They don’t have to play the final pass but they can play the second-last or third-last.
That’s how it is. The main thing about these kinds of things is if you mix it up -
we know, we feel that very often ourselves - it makes it just more difficult for the opposition
to adapt to it, because you think you have an idea for this pass,
you have an idea for that pass, you can close the centre,
you can close the gaps... and then they play over your head.
Many teams do that with us constantly,
and so we thought years ago we should try that as well.
Yes, Virgil is a really good player and I’m really happy that we have him.
And, yes, he has plenty of strengths - hopefully he can show them all on Saturday.
If I can just ask you about Steven Gerrard,
he said that you exchanged a few messages before the game,
what messages did you send him ahead of his first game in charge of Villa?
No, not before the game, after he signed the contract.
And I would have posted them, which I don't do, if they were not private, but they are.
He said one thing, and, yes, that's true.
I'm looking forward to meeting him and I'm really happy for him,
but what we write is completely private and it will stay that way.
- Hi, Jürgen. - Hi.
Neco Williams played really well for Wales in the international break, at left-back,
he showed his versatility.
How much has he improved, and with all the games coming up,
will he get more game time, is he pushing for a start?
He’s pushing, he did it already at Preston [in the Carabao Cup], which is good.
Neco is a young player and he plays with Liverpool,
we are a pretty good football team,
it’s not that easy to get into the first team on his maybe natural position -
I’m not sure if really right-back is the natural position.
But there is Trent Alexander-Arnold, and if he couldn’t play -
and Neco was not fit then -
James Milner played there, in an incredible way, to be honest.
But Neco, I saw images of his performances [for Wales]
and he did really well, especially offensively,
big chance against Belgium in the last minute or so.
It’s all about pushing, and that’s what he is doing, so he is not doing anything wrong.
And then it’s about the opportunity coming up.
And on the midfield, with injuries you've used nine different combinations,
how difficult does that make it attacking and defending when it's not settled?
Yeah, it's not easy, but if it would be easy our owners wouldn't pay that much money
to solve all these problems.
We have to deal with that.
Would I wish to always play the same three? No.
Because we have too many games for that,
but would it be cool to have the choice between five, six or seven?
Yes, that would be really cool.
Would it be cool to have some training days to see what works?
That would be cool as well.
But we don't have either/or, so we have to deal with our situation,
we had a really strange situation in the centre-half position last year,
this year it looks like we have a midfield disease, and we have to deal with that.
But there's no excuses, we have to win football games and we have to find solutions
for specific games, and the next one is Arsenal.
Just to go back to the Neco situation,
he's played more for Wales than he has for Liverpool this season,
and the Wales boss said this week
that those players not playing games,
he would support them looking for regular football in January.
Do you think there's a possibility Neco might have to go out on loan somewhere?
Is that something you've thought about yet?
We are really short of players -
the last thing I’m thinking about in the moment is who could go on loan in the winter,
and I didn’t think about that for the Neco case.
I can 100 per cent understand that the colleague from Wales
thinks it makes sense that they play [for their club] but they are nearly qualified,
or can qualify for the World Cup,
with a lot of players who are not first choice in their teams.
So I think it makes absolute sense that Neco is here developing every day,
and that’s what he’s doing.
To fight through the situation, that’s what he is doing.
Just going on loan and you never know where he will end up -
not Neco but in general, a player.
First and foremost, you have to make sure you fight where you are,
because if you don’t sort your problems where you are,
you will carry them with you to the next club as well.
I said before, it’s not easy to be a first line-up player constantly at Liverpool,
we have a really strong squad.
But Neco is developing, Neco is improving
and that’s why Neco could play how he played for Wales -
not only against Belgium but as well against Belgium. That’s it.
Just quickly, on the squad, we spoke about Hendo, Sadio and Robbo,
but are any of the longer-term ones closer to being available?
For the weekend? No.
The closest are probably Millie and Naby.
I think we explained already but with Curtis [Jones] we have to [take it],
I would not say day by day but probably week by week
until anybody gives us the green light - or him the green light.
Harvey [Elliott] is doing really well but there is still some time
in between now and the moment when he can start again for us.
Joe [Gomez], doing well but needs time and Bobby [Firmino], doing well but needs time.
I hope I didn’t forget anybody, but that’s it.