ReactionArne Slot press conference: Derby victory, Diogo Jota strike, Curtis Jones and more
Arne Slot praised a hard-fought 1-0 victory from his Liverpool side over Everton at Anfield in the Premier League on Wednesday night.
Diogo Jota's brilliant individual goal in minute 57 settled the contest, which was the 246th instalment of the Merseyside derby.
The No.20 moved one way and then another inside the penalty area, before driving a low shot past goalkeeper Jordan Pickford to spark wild celebrations in front of the Kop.
Liverpool were forced to be patient as they battled back and forth with the Blues, who went closest via Beto in the opening period as he struck the post from a one-on-one.
But Jota's strike was enough to settle the match in favour of Slot's side, re-establishing their 12-point advantage at the top of the Premier League.
Read a full transcript of the head coach's post-match press conference below...
On the game and the result...
Hard-fought, definitely, but that was no surprise. Everton were nine games in a row unbeaten, hardly ever concede a goal, hardly ever concede a chance, defend with 10 players apart from Beto in and around their 18-yard box. With players like [James] Tarkowski and [Jarrad] Branthwaite it is almost of no use to bring a cross in because they head every ball away. So, they are a team that is difficult to play against because they are also a threat on the counter-attack with Beto. Every throw-in they get and every free-kick they get against us, you have to defend that and that's what makes it so difficult.
What I liked much more today than I did at Goodison Park... at Goodison Park we had ball possession but we only had ball possession with our centre-backs and full-backs and today only the first half. I think if I say 10 or 15 times that Lucho Diaz was one-v-one against Jake O'Brien, I don't even think I exaggerate, but to have that is one thing and to create a chance is another thing. That's why we have to be there so many times, so many times, so many times and you're hoping that one time can then be enough - and it was with Diogo's goal.
On Jota's goal...
Very pleased. He was close to it already in the first half; I think it was after seven or eight minutes. It was not a surprise they blocked that shot because they are defensively an incredibly strong team. For him to come up in the second half, he had two of these moments as well and the other moment was blocked. But [for the goal] he found just a bit of space and he scored the goal, which was nice for him but nice for us - and by us, I mean his teammates, the staff and the fans.
On Tarkowski not receiving a red card for his challenge on Alexis Mac Allister in the first half...
Let me first say that I don't want to comment about the situation because so many people already commented on that, even people that are not liking Liverpool a lot, and they were all so clear and obvious what the decision should have been. There's no need for me to comment on that. Was I surprised? No.
On Curtis Jones playing at right-back...
It's not something that came up last week. It's something that I've thought about and we've thought about for a bit longer. [In the] first half of the season there were already moments where I talked about this with him that I think he is able to do this in games or in moments of games. But three full-backs were injured: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez. Then it's a choice of playing a centre-back over there.
Jarell [Quansah] did quite OK in that position, to be fair, and he would have helped us with set-pieces. But I felt - we felt - that we had to play better with the ball than we did in the away game. It's a risk to play a midfielder over there maybe. But I knew that he could help with his creativity in this position because that's what you lack of course when Trent is not playing for you. He did very well defensively also so [it was] a strong performance from him, like from the whole team, and it's nice to have an extra option in that position because three of them are injured.
On VAR taking only 10 seconds to make a decision on the Tarkowski challenge...
I don't mind if they take 10 seconds or a minute. If you are a VAR and you think it's not a red card then you can also say it in 10 seconds; you don't have to wait for me to look at it a minute. It's a human being that makes a decision, so the referee makes a decision, a human being makes the decision over there. I don't mind if they take 10 seconds, or a minute, or two minutes, or three minutes. They should take the right decision.
If I hear all the comments, people don't think they made the right decision, which they fortunately did with the offside goal, which was not offside according to the rules. Do I like the rule? No. I don't like the rule. I think it's a rule that is not helping the team that wants to attack because normally we always go to the halfway line, they kick the ball long, the striker is in an offside position, and my centre-backs feel they have to head the ball away. I always tell the linesman it was offside and they say, "No, no, no, he's not interfering." I hate that rule, but the execution of the rule was fortunately for us today. Well done in that situation.