ReactionArne Slot press conference: Analysis of Spurs 1-2 Liverpool, injury latest on Bradley and Isak
Read Arne Slot's analysis of Liverpool's 2-1 win at Tottenham Hotspur, and the latest on the condition of Conor Bradley and Alexander Isak.
Isak opened the scoring in the 56th minute of the Premier League contest on Saturday evening, but suffered an injury in the process and was unable to continue.
Spurs were down to 10 players by that point after Xavi Simons had been sent off in the first half, and they went 2-0 behind just beyond the hour mark when Hugo Ekitike headed in.
Richarlison halved the deficit late on in the second half to set up a tense finale, which included another red card as Cristian Romero was dismissed for the hosts for his second bookable offence.
See what Slot had to say in his post-match press conference…
On the injury to Isak sustained as he scored...
I don't have any news on him, but if a player scores, then gets injured and then doesn't come back on the pitch and doesn't try to come back... which Conor Bradley, for example, did, but I had to take him off as well because he couldn't go on, but if a player doesn't even try to come back that's usually not a good thing. But I cannot say anything more than that, that is just [a] gut feeling. Nothing medical to say about it.
On whether Isak has said anything about it...
I haven't spoken to him about it yet. It's a good thing that he scored: a good goal, assisted by Florian Wirtz. I said last week already players are getting better and the team is getting better. Again, it wasn't perfect today, especially not in the last 10 minutes, but in the meantime we pick up points and I see the team developing in a way I like to see.
On whether losing Isak is 'all the more frustrating' after he scored from a Wirtz assist...
Yes, that is what we would like to see happening a lot. Good finish, good pass, but let's not be too negative yet. We don't know yet. Let's hope he is back with us soon but difficult to say to you now.
On whether Jeremie Frimpong was substituted due to injury...
No, Jeremie has no problem at all. I didn't want to go down to 10 men for 30 seconds. I think this is the only country where if players are injured they need to go off for 30 seconds, with a head injury [it is] even 45, so I adapted to that. I knew there wasn't long to play and I thought we struggled a lot with our plus one, so playing 10-v-10 for half a minute with him being on the floor, yes or no, then we just go with Federico [Chiesa]. No problem with him, but with Alex and with Conor we have to wait. You could see our bench today as well, but this is not for the first time in the last few weeks and we are picking up points and that's the main thing. We are not the only team that suffers injuries in this period in England because we play so many games. This is quite normal, that teams have injuries in this period of time.
On pushing for the top four again...
Of course we are happy with that. But when we started the season, it wasn't as if I was thrilled and completely happy when we were top four. We're always aiming for the best possible and, after a very good start we had, we were disappointed with the run of results we had afterwards. But I think you've said it, we are now maybe on equal points for top four, I don't exactly know. But don't forget, in the Champions League we've done quite well with a very difficult draw. I see a lot of teams that hardly have a point but we haven't faced them. So, I think it's never been as bad as people said, but it's also true that we are definitely not perfect yet. But we knew this when we made so many changes in the summer that it would take time. Maybe because we won the first five or six games, everybody thought this would just go so easily. But as a club, ownership, Richard [Hughes], Michael [Edwards], all the other people, knew that change could, could, could also go with different results – and that has shown to be true.
On being under pressure despite the numerical advantage or whether it's 'naturally the way a game goes when a team gets a goal'...
That is definitely true, that last thing. It is always difficult if I try to explain why it's difficult and then people tell me afterwards, 'You tell too much to your future opponents.' I think it was quite obvious what Newcastle did and it was quite obvious what Tottenham did, but then maybe I shouldn't say it. But in the meantime when we had the ball, that was what hurt me the most because from the nine minutes of added time – which ended up with 10 [and] were completely correct this time – I think they had 95 per cent of the ball. So every time when we had the ball, we kicked it away or we threw it away. It was unbelievable that we couldn't keep the ball a bit longer, so then you have to defend for nine minutes, nine-and-a-half minutes.
On Tottenham going down to nine men...
I thought it would mean that it was a bit easier but in reality it wasn't. Of course they still had the free-kick and I know what a special player [Pedro] Porro is and how good of a free-kick he has – he showed that already with the corner kick he took which led eventually to the goal and in some other moments. I thought, 'Let's first survive this free-kick.' And to be honest, I thought against nine we would probably be able to keep them away from our goal. But it looked as if we were down to nine and they were with 11, because it was attack after attack after attack, which didn't lead to a goal.
On the red-card decisions...
The second one I haven't seen. I thought one of our players got a yellow and I was like, 'How can Ibou [Konate] get a yellow card for this?' But Ibou wasn't even on a yellow. But then I saw that they got one. So, I don't know what happened, why he got the second yellow. The first one with Xavi Simons, I don't think he had any intention to do it. But if you see it back, where he touches him from behind, studs, the height, I think it was calf, [on the] Achilles, already a few times when other teams made fouls like that against us it didn't lead to a red card, but this time it did. I've seen multiple times that these fouls are a red card. But I've seen this season a few times when other teams made these same fouls against us that it wasn't. You always rely a little bit on who is the VAR and which decision [the] referee makes.