Arne Slot press conference: Bournemouth, title defence, Szoboszlai role and more

Arne Slot is excited by the start of the new Premier League season and ready for the challenge of Liverpool defending their title.

The Reds, champions in 2024-25, begin the next top-flight campaign by hosting AFC Bournemouth at Anfield on Friday night.

Ahead of the clash with the Cherries, head coach Slot spoke to the media at a press conference this morning, discussing a range of topics.

Read a summary of his briefing below…

On how ready he feels Liverpool are to start the Premier League season…

As ready as we can be. I think I’ve emphasised last week the fact that we have lost three or four starters and, unfortunately, Ryan Gravenberch was not able to play last week and is not able to play this week. So that means if you exclude the goalkeeper from the 10 outfield positions, five were different than the main starters we had last season. If you then look at the quality we bring on the ball, I’m very happy with that. Without the ball, it’s eight out of 10 times also very good – but the aim at this club is not eight out of 10 times, it’s 10 out of 10 times. And that is the fine-tuning we still need to find defensively.

That went in pre-season one time better than the other one. Against [Athletic Club] Bilbao I was really, really pleased with our defensive performance because we didn’t give away any chance I think at all from open play. But we did concede [from] two set-pieces. Against [Crystal] Palace the main chances we conceded were when we lost the balls ourselves.

So it has been ups and downs where the downs were not so low, but I think there is the main part for us still to improve. Which is normal. I think for everyone in pre-season it’s normal that there’s still room for improvement, let alone if we not only lost three or four starters, I think we’ve lost five to six players that played quite a lot of minutes for us last season and we brought in four new ones, so then it’s normal that there’s a little bit of adaptation. But we are definitely ready for the league to start.

On his expectations for the season…

The reason why that is so difficult [to retain the title] lies mainly in the fact that there’s so many competitors that can also win the league over here. To win it once is already very special, let alone if you can win it twice in three, four or five years, or as we did, twice in five years and [Manchester] City did even better than us in the last few years. So that’s unbelievable if you’re able to do this in this league. And probably this year is going to be harder than every year before, because every team brings in new players but our main competitors definitely did as well.

On what he expects from Bournemouth on Friday…

[They are] intense. They made it really difficult for us last season. We beat them 3-0, where you feel like ‘What is he talking about, difficult?’ But if you look at the game, they had the first big chance of the game, they scored a goal which was fractionally offside. Then we three times, I wouldn’t say counter-attacked them but we were very fast in moving the ball from back to forward. And all of sudden at half-time we were 3-0 up, and then I thought – which I always thought when I was a manager in Holland – ‘This is going to be four, five or six-nil’.

But the mentality Bournemouth showed in the second half, they just kept on going. That’s the mentality they had throughout the whole season afterwards as well. They also lost some players, they also brought in good new ones – as they’ve shown in the last few years, that they can always bring in good new players. And away, it was even more difficult for us. So, very good team, good manager and a challenge for us on Friday. But looking forward to it because an evening game at Anfield is something that everyone is looking forward to it.

On improving Liverpool’s defensive solidity after pre-season…

Don’t forget we missed [Alexis] Mac Allister as well in the last part of last season and he hardly was able to play in our pre-season, only now recently he has played a few games, played a few minutes. But it’s not that I’m not happy about certain parts, I was [saying] just a second ago that the standard here is 10 out of 10. So, it’s not one or two things we don’t do well, no. In general we do all well but well is not good enough and there we have to go one step up in certain aspects. Not in all aspects, in certain aspects.

And then there’s something like against Bilbao, we were really good defensively but conceded two set-pieces. And the games before, we also had mixed teams so then you can also accept a little bit better that maybe timings between players were not as good as when you play the starters that have played so many times together. So, there are reasons for it. Like I just said, mixed teams; new players coming in, Virgil [van Dijk] being sick against Bilbao, Alisson [Becker] not being there, Macca being injured, Ryan not able to play and new players brought in. But all of this is definitely not an excuse when we start the league on Friday because we will 100 per cent be ready on Friday.

On Jeremie Frimpong’s profile as a right-back and how he could link up with Mohamed Salah…

In my opinion, Jeremie and Conor Bradley are similar types, although Jeremie is maybe better in the one-v-ones than Conor is. But I think Jeremie and Conor can both contribute to Mo’s output because if you play against these two, you know you have to be aware of these two as well. So, it normally gives Mo even more space to get the one-v-ones. Because if we isolate Jeremie in a one-v-one it’s difficult for the other team and if we isolate Mo in a one-v-one it’s difficult for the other team as well.

Where maybe last season they [the opposition] could give a little bit more help because Trent [Alexander-Arnold] was a little bit more behind the ball, which was also dangerous because when Mo brought it back, Trent could deliver one of his famous crosses. So, it’s different types but I think both types – and Trent proved it together with Mo, Trent brought the best out of Mo – we think, I think, the same thing is going to happen with Conor and Jeremie with Mo in that regard.

On Dominik Szoboszlai being used in a deeper role…

I think he can play both roles really well and he has his quality in both roles, and things he can improve in both roles. What stands out with Dominik is the way he can press. I don’t think there are many midfielders in the world you can find that are better in the intensity he can press with. But if he’s [playing] at 10 I think the improvement he can make is playing between the lines, finding the balls there and getting not the end product in goals but more the through balls. And if he’s playing behind the ball, I think that’s not new for him but he hasn’t played there a lot last season so sometimes you need to adjust to your teammates and in your positioning. I think he’s had a really good pre-season. He didn’t play his best game against Palace but for the rest he had a very good pre-season.