Sam Allardyce coming back into football with Everton getting a new manager,
just in time for the derby of course,
how do you feel about seeing him coming back into football management?
Is he a character that you like and you respect?
Yeah, of course. With Sam I have kind of a history, when he was at Sunderland
he said something after the game, I'm not sure about it anymore,
but he had to row back or something, not for me obviously,
only because we are all in the public.
Then he was the manager of the English national team,
we had a very good relationship in his short term,
so now he obviously had a little bit of holiday
and recharged the batteries and is back on track. I'm happy for him,
it's good for us when Everton is in a good moment,
they shouldn't be in a better moment than we are,
but in a good moment. It's important for us
and I think for the whole city, and so I'm happy about that, yes.
One manager who's not very happy is Mark Hughes after the game against Stoke,
he said this morning that he's still very angry about the penalty and Simon Mignolet,
he said that the referee made such a fundamental mistake in his opinion
that he shouldn't be refereeing this weekend.
You've had a bit of time to think about what happened,
what are your thoughts on how it all panned out?
First of all, I think it was the first time this season that we were lucky in a situation,
to be 100 per cent honest, but I have to admit that we WERE lucky.
After the game when I gave the interview...
I was 100 per cent sure it was the right decision,
because I thought Joe Gomez was in a different position.
So I didn't realise from my point of view
that it was pretty much a 100 per cent goal after that. It would not have been a penalty,
it was outside the box, but, yes, if there is a red card for Simon Mignolet
we probably cannot argue.
So I understand that he is not happy about that decision,
100 per cent, but that's pretty much all,
I don't think that refs need to be more punished
than they are already in the situation,
and after the game everybody is talking about them all the time,
and the best thing after the game is that nobody is speaking about the referee.
That doesn't happen too often, and I know we are all emotional when involved in the game,
it's all about do you want to have a fair decision, stuff like this,
but it's always a point of view.
The refs decide like they do, and it was very often for us this season
that it was not for our fortune. This time, like I said,
for the first time we were kind of lucky, so I respect and like Mark a lot,
so I can imagine that he thinks that was a very decisive moment in the game.
Yes, probably, but that's how it is, we had a lot of these situations
during the whole season so far, and, yeah,
now we take this like we took all the other things.
Just finally from me, Mo Salah doing a fantastic job again obviously,
he's been compared in some reports to Luis Suarez, in terms of the effect
he's having on Liverpool. Are you surprised at all at just how well he's doing so far
and how well he's settled in at Liverpool?
For me it's a little bit difficult, because I'm a very positive person,
but we always talk about the last game, or last games,
and sitting here I am only interested in the next game.
So, yes, he is obviously in a good moment, hopefully he will stay in a good moment,
that's much more important for us, and how could I still be surprised about his impact?
He has been here for a few months already and was from the first day
involved in everything in the team, and very open for all the things,
and for him, new things that we did in training, different intensity of the league to Italy,
but he already played on the highest level, the last two or three years
in another country, and maybe it's a surprise for English people
that if you are good in another league you can still be good in the Premier League.
So that's of course what we were hoping for when we signed him,
and it makes it even better,
but as with all the players in the world,
you need the other players to be in the situation.
Yes, it was a fantastic move, dribbling and cross from Sadio for the first goal,
and then it looked quite cool and relaxed when he finished it,
but Mo knows himself that you need to be in a good moment to take a ball like this.
You can have exactly the same situation five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten times
in your career and it will always look a bit different.
I was very happy that he could do it like he did,
and so, all good in this moment.
Fraser mentioned the comparison with Suarez, do you see Salah...?
I'm not interested, I'm not interested. I respect Luis Suarez a lot,
he is a Liverpool legend, fantastic player, still a fantastic player,
like his attitude and style of play, but he's not a Liverpool player anymore,
and it's not that I have to compare players and impacts,
we have a lot of players who have a big impact on performances,
so that's a story for newspapers, for social media, I am not a little bit interested in that.
You don't get a vote in Player of the Season,
but is he already on target to be a contender for that?
The very important word in this is "season",
we are not even halfway through the season.
So, yeah, if he can continue like this then probably he is in the mix-up,
and hopefully it will be like this, but there's a few yards to go still.
What have you made of Brighton and their progress
in their first season in the Premier League?
Before the game I always try, I am not new in the league anymore,
but there are a clubs where I didn't play so far, so I try to find out a little bit about the city
and stuff like this, and yesterday I found out that we have the Brighton Kop in Brighton,
obviously in a very lively supporters' club, I watched the video and it was very nice.
So thank you for your support, it's cool.
So we are coming now, that's one thing,
the other thing, Brighton is a really strong side.
They have all the good things that you have when you get promoted
after a difficult period the year before, and then you do it the next year,
and it's a really strong group of good players, good new signings,
not a lot but a few very important ones like Gross,
the German guy from Ingolstadt, fantastic player,
I've known him for a long time.
And so, together with the manager obviously it fits really well together.
They are not a counter-attacking side or a long ball side,
but they have all this stuff, unbelievably quick wingers for the counter-attacks,
they defend deep, then they play long balls but they play football as well,
because they have the skilled players for that.
So it's a mix-up, it was a very interesting analysis, to be honest!
And, yeah, they had a few very good results already this season
and even when they lost there were no high results.
It's not that anybody, not City on the first matchday or United,
whoever, it was never easy, and so we should expect that it will not be easy for us.
We are in a good moment as well and we should use that, that's the target.
Jürgen, given the hectic schedule in December,
so many games in a really short space of time,
and you've already started making changes to the team,
like most Premier League managers,
how do you go about making those decisions - is it what you see in training and matches?
How much of it is down to what you discuss with the medical and training staff?
Yeah, discuss with the medical staff, I don't discuss too much with them
because they give me information, I have to accept it!
There's nothing to discuss. No, but of course that's the first talk,
I need to know who's in the mix-up and who I can think about,
and in the moment when I know that, then I can make the line-up.
And the line-up is always...
To be honest, in the sessions we have at the moment, they are not too many,
but of course every player has to show me every day...
how much he wants to be involved,
so that's what they are doing, and when they do that, it depends on the opponent,
it depends on the moment, it depends on the break till the next game and a lot of things
make a lot of influence on my decision.
But the best thing is, you have 24 players to think about,
unfortunately that's really not often the case, so...
So far it worked OK, like I said after the game, if I can make each decision in football,
the only thing is, my team need to win afterwards.
If we don't win, then it's absolutely the wrong decision,
if we win, then people think, "OK, not too bad."
But we will all know that, always, after the game, and not earlier.
In terms of league position, in an ideal world you'd be top of the table,
but you're well-positioned, and I think most people accept
that there aren't too many teams in the Premier League that can go out and win
six or seven games on the trot, and Liverpool are one of them,
I think you've won four of the last five, so you're well-positioned
if you can put that run of games together to be in the mix.
Yeah, we need it. There's no other chance to be in the region where we are
than winning the games, so we have to do that, but we knew it before the season,
I knew it when I came in in October 2015, so that's how it is,
but I am happy to have a team which makes it more likely to do things like this.
It's not that I'm a genius or whatever, or that managers of other teams
lower in the table are worse or whatever. I have a good team around, that's true,
but we need these players, we need the quality of the players
and then we can make our plans, and there should be no doubt about motivation,
we know about our responsibility and we want to achieve the maximum.
The maximum in this season, we will see what it is, like I said a few times,
if City keeps on winning like they did in the last few weeks,
then there's no chance for anybody, but it's not our problem,
our situation is good enough to work with it,
but that doesn't make the next game easier.
It's still Brighton and they are still in a good moment, it's an away game
in the Premier League, even if it looks like a few teams can win
a few games in a row, look at the results - they win it after 97 minutes,
they win with lucky decisions, whatever,
it's not that before the game you know already how it will end.
I watched the game back, Arsenal-Huddersfield, 5-0,
it looks like absolutely clear, and you watch the game and it was 1-0
and Huddersfield could have gone 2-1 up, maybe should have done.
And then at the end it's 5-0, things can happen,
so you only have to be prepared for the problems you will get in the game,
there are a lot, and the better you are prepared for that the better you can react.
The better you can react, the more likely it is that you will win.
Any injury problems, Jürgen, or players potentially not available?
Yeah...
So it looks like Joel Matip is out.
After the game he had a problem, he felt something, muscle-wise,
we have to make the final assessment but it doesn't look like he is available for tomorrow.
That's pretty much all,
we have Adam Lallana still building up the fitness.
Ragnar Klavan was ill, hopefully he isn't anymore.
Especially when you think about Matip's situation, so it's not that we have
a big choice to make in defence,
that's the situation, but hopefully...
We had a few knocks, like it is after a game, and it's the shorter part of the week,
with Wednesday-Saturday, so not a long time to recover from different things,
so final decisions will be made after the session at three o'clock.
Sorry, just wondering, Jürgen,
obviously the World Cup draw is going on later this afternoon,
is that something the players have talked about much at all?
Not to me. No, no, it was not...
I don't believe in winning the tournament because of the draw,
so it's like it is, it's exciting and everybody who is really involved in the World Cup
will be a little bit more excited,
it's an important thing, but it's not the most important thing,
the tournament next year is much more important.
So I will get the information after our session, probably.
Pretty much immediately after our session, about the groups, and then I'll forget it,
apart from the England group and the Germany group.
All the other groups I will not know until summer 2018,
but I didn't speak to the players about it
because it's not too important for us in the moment.