Next season the Premier League will introduce five substitutes per match,
what do you reckon about that?
Great news. It's top news for football, it's top news for the players.
We spoke a lot about it and the situation is
that we all know there will not be less games.
So, nobody will step aside, no competition in no country really,
and the international games will get more -
the European Championship will be with more teams, all these kind of things.
So for the players, it will be always more.
With all the things we know about football, we try to help them with recovery
as good as we can, and it's much better than it used to be,
but still the games are the most intense part of the week - and [that's] three times a week.
There's no other sport where you have that for such a long period.
So everything we could do or we can do, we should do -
and obviously now the Premier League understood that as well,
and the Premier League clubs understood it as well.
I'm really happy for football and for the players.
Obviously this week a number of players returning from international duty,
none of them experienced the range of emotions that Sadio and Mo did,
one having qualified for the World Cup, the other missing out,
how do you deal with that situation
and make sure they're ready to refocus on the job in hand?
Yeah, obviously I'm really happy for Sadio, that he could make it,
and I'm obviously very disappointed and feel with Mo.
I don't think the situation with the penalty and the laser pen was particularly cool,
that's clear as well. So I feel for him, but I'm happy for Sadio as well.
That's football, we are used to that, that's all the time like this.
It's different when two mates in such a big game play against each other,
but they both are top professionals again, very emotional people as well,
but I'm pretty sure they both will deal with it in the right way.
There's no doubt about it that Senegal is probably, in the moment,
the best team in Africa, and Egypt did really well.
They really took them to the wire, and twice in a penalty shootout,
so that's the closest you can get in a game like this.
Senegal is an extremely talented squad and Egypt did really well.
I'm not sure if they can see it like this exactly, but from my point of view they should,
because you cannot get closer than they did,
and it was a bit unlucky with the draw and stuff like this.
I think pretty much against all other teams Egypt would have qualified for the World Cup,
but because it was Senegal again, it was not enough. That's it.
How's Trent's recovery going?
If he's not fit for this weekend, will he be fit to face Manchester City?
There's a game in between, you know.
Yes.
Ah, thank you.
Trent trained yesterday, parts,
and will be in full training today, and we have to see what we do with it.
I know and I heard, how it is obviously in this country -
it’s more than in other countries, I can tell you -
Trent wanted to go to the national team, just to make sure that everybody [is aware].
He couldn’t. You can see the scans, with these pictures you cannot go anywhere.
But sometimes injuries, thank God, are not that serious that you are out
for five or six weeks; sometimes it’s two weeks and that’s the case with Trent.
It will be tight for tomorrow, but it’s possible after all I hear.
It’s different if you are part of team training, it depends what you could do before
and he was really with our rehab and fitness department,
it was really intense what he did before he trained with us.
So physically, he should be fine,
Now I have to make the decision about rhythm and these kinds of things.
Will he definitely be ready for Benfica?
I think so.
Just finally from me, Jürgen, does it come into the thinking now
that you have to ask the question of Manchester City,
because you play first on Saturday and you could go top of the league,
and then it's on them to respond.
It's a very good example for how important is it to be top of the league
at 2.30pm on a Saturday when all the rest are playing after? It's not too important.
We were, most of the time, in the situation that City played before us,
and this time we play [first], but I couldn't care less about what is after that.
It is just about how well are we prepared for the 12.30pm situation,
because we face Watford.
Watford won their last game, Watford smell the chance to stay in the league,
they will go with everything.
They have a very experienced manager, the way they set up is very well organised,
a lot of individual talent.
It happens so often in the Premier League,
when I watch the teams, when we do the analysis it's like,
"Wow, they are so good...they are good here, they are good there, good there",
and in the end they don't have a lot of points.
That's just because of the quality in the league,
but individual talent in the group is really good, and that's what we have to be aware of.
What we need for this game
is a sensational, the best - the best - 12.30pm atmosphere ever.
Not nervous, not whatever, not tense and you cannot breathe...
If you cannot shout and sing, stay at home and give your ticket to somebody else, please.
Really, we need you with all we have - the boys came back from all over the world,
played completely different systems again and we have this one session today
where we can make sure we remind them of what WE actually do,
because their national teams obviously do it completely different.
Then we go against a very well-organised Watford team
and we need each voice for that.
According to Fantasy Premier League this is an easy week for you and Man City,
I'm guessing you're reading it a bit differently.
What is the Fantasy... What is that?
I don't think about the week, I think about Watford.
You mean next week not this week?
This week both you and Man City are playing teams in the bottom three.
Ah, this weekend! Now I got it.
Oh, my God.
The good thing is, if we would see it like that,
they wouldn't have 70 points and we wouldn't have 69 points,
because these games are ridiculous.
It's so difficult to play if you don't find rhythm, if you don't find momentum.
It's so difficult. They can all hit you from everywhere;
from set-pieces, from counter-attacks, all these kinds of things.
The good thing about my team is that they never care about the opposition [or] the table,
they really listen to what I tell them about the [opposition] team.
I am in these meetings one hundred per cent honest.
I don't make the team stronger than they are, an opponent,
I don't make them weaker than they are.
I just say what they do, and then on top of that, there's very important information.
But they didn't play for a while against us,
so it's now really important that we make the difference.
Whatever they think about us, we have to surprise them with different things,
with intensity, with enthusiasm, with positivity, with these kinds of things.
So, it's for sure not an easy weekend.
Neither for us, nor for Man City. Burnley is the last place you want to go.
Burnley, obviously, has a big chance to stay in the league
and for that they cannot make the choice where they want to get the points from.
So, that's how it is for the teams.
Same situation with Watford, of course.
So, it will be tough, but no problem. We are ready for these kinds of things.
What do you take from the 5-0 back in October?
Under a different manager...
If you would have asked me now, I knew we won there but wasn't sure it was 5-0.
I couldn't care less what we did there; obviously we were good and they weren't,
but since then a lot happened and they are now well-drilled.
I don't know why Roy did it [took the job], to be honest! But he is still on fire.
He still organises a team really well and doesn't get carried away with anything,
he is super, super experienced and it will be a joy to see him again.
I already said goodbye to him; now, hello again!
But it's difficult, no problem again, it's just the things we have to do.
Play with all we have and don't think about anything else, that's the only way I know.
Finally from me, would you still like to be managing a team at 74?
No, definitely not, but I'm not Roy so I don't know,
it's a free world, he can make his own decisions.
I don't know when he started but he must be around 40 years in management.
Wow. And he still looks alright, obviously it keeps him fresh,
so it's right for him - it will not be right for me.
Hi, Jürgen, is everyone ready to go for the run-in then?
Andy Robertson missed the game for Scotland, I think he had an illness.
Covid.
OK, so does that rule him out of...?
No, he played the second game. He was ruled out by covid after our game,
tested positive, followed procedure, quarantined, negative test,
then played 50-odd minutes for Scotland against Austria.
He's fine. Fresh, I don't know.
Hendo didn't play the second game, he's probably fresh.
The Brazilians played, Mo and Sadio played 120 minutes,
Luis [Diaz] played both games, Diogo played both games.
So it's not a problem, at this time of year
when they play Tuesday and we play Saturday, that's fine,
but they travel and some of them only arrived yesterday.
So we have to see what we do with it, but it's not the first time we deal with these things.
I know you're not overly concerned with Mo because of his professionalism,
but on the flip side, the disappointment he's had at AFCON and now this,
does that give him more motivation to have success with Liverpool?
Mo wants to win, that's why he was very disappointed
that they couldn't win AFCON and couldn't qualify for the World Cup,
that's different competitions, so his desire will be bigger now rather than lesser.
He's a very smart person, he sees the difference between all these things.
We didn't speak in detail about it, to be honest,
but he knows Senegal are really a tough team to get at the moment,
they have a good generation. It was a bit unlucky in moments,
that's how it is, especially with penalty shootouts,
but, no, nobody has to worry about that, he's fine.
Jürgen, Watford is the start of eight games in this month,
can we expect the full squad being used
and also, how challenging is that as a manager, eight games in a month?
It's not the first month we ever had with eight games.
Not sure you could fit [in] a ninth game [or whether]
it would be possible - somebody will try!
Yeah, full squad? Probably.
For this full squad, the majority of the squad hopefully we can use,
because that means the boys will be all fit.
For example, yesterday Naby couldn't train.
[He] felt a little bit here and there.
I don't know exactly yet, nobody called me yet about Naby for today.
So we will see how he is for today.
Apart from that, we had them pretty much all available.
So, hopefully they are all fit and then we will use the majority of [the] squad, of course.
Is it a bigger challenge taking on a team that's fighting for Premier League survival?
It's more challenging because you work with less confidence.
You have lesser results.
Fighting for winning a league,
the teams you are fighting with they're winning pretty much all the football games.
That's rather positive pressure.
If you are 'down south', then it's, yeah,
you obviously are there because you didn't win a lot of games,
and if you lose another one that doesn't help, really.
So, if we can stay calm and you see how experienced the managers are
that are now involved in this battle, it will be incredibly interesting,
because I am really sure the managers have exactly the right nerves for it.
They are all at the right mindset for it.
So that will be really interesting until the last matchday, I am pretty sure.
In the end, I enjoy more - and I had both for a long time in my life -
I enjoy more to be on the other [top] end of the table.
But both is very challenging and very interesting.
Is Naby fit? I think he also pulled out the internationals.
Yeah, but that was kind of OK,
then he trained once and felt something again,
so we need to see. I'm not sure if he can be involved tomorrow.