NewsArne Slot press conference: Man City FA Cup tie, upcoming schedule and Mo Salah

The Reds return from the international break with a last-eight tie against Pep Guardiola's side at Etihad Stadium.

Salah has been declared fit for the Saturday lunchtime encounter after injury and could take to the pitch for the first time since announcing the 2025-26 season will be his last at the club.

Read on for the key takeaways from Slot's session with reporters.

On Salah leaving at the end of the season and whether he is fit for Saturday...

Yes, he is [fit]. He trained with us yesterday, he will train with us today and is available for the game tomorrow. I think what has happened after he announced it is what he completely deserves. His teammates, anyone everywhere around the world that was asked about his legacy said the words that needed to be said. It's been unbelievable what he did for this club for so many years every three days, scoring the goals he did, having the assists, having the impact he had on this club, winning the trophies. I saw a beautiful photo of him in front of all of the trophies he's won individually and as a team, and I can only hope that he can add two extra trophies to it towards the end of the season.

• Pre-Man City injury updates: Alisson, Frimpong and Isak

On whether Salah making the announcement now can give the club a 'boost' for the rest of the season...

For the club, maybe. For Mo, I think it doesn't matter if he's going to leave the club or if he's going to stay. That's what he's shown in all these eight or nine years – that he was always available in his best possible shape. And that doesn't change, not in a positive way now he's leaving in the end because Mo has always given everything he's got for this club in all the years that he's been here. So, I would hope that he could give maybe even more but that's not realistic because he always gave everything he had, and he will try doing that until the end of the season. If we have a Mo in the form he's had for so many years, that will be a big help for us towards the end of the season.

On an exciting run of fixtures ahead and whether that is 'how he wants it at this stage of the season'…

Yeah, but that's throughout the whole season how much you want it. But it's also about who is available and who is not and I think the Brighton game summed our season up completely. So, after a great game midweek against Galatasaray, we immediately hit the setback the day after with Ali [Alisson Becker] and Mo being out. And then three minutes into the game, Hugo Ekitike went out and I think we could also see that in the second half, one or two players struggled with the fact that we played during midweek and those were the players that were not used to it yet because of injuries throughout the whole season.

But now, Mo is back. Ali unfortunately isn't, but I think much more of our players are used to the programme now than they were in the beginning of the season. So now it's up to us to show that we are ready for this tough fixture list. Tough in a sense of the opponents we face – but that's completely normal if you are still in the FA Cup and if you're still in the Champions League that you face tough opponents – and tough in a sense that it's a lot of games with hardly any rest in between.

But we are now eight or nine months further than we were in the start of the season and I think more and more players are ready for this schedule than they were for large parts of the first half of the season.

On why big games seem to have brought the best out of the team so far this season…

Unfortunately, the one game we are playing tomorrow was probably the worst game we had in the sense of playing the big games, we lost there 3-0. Of course, there were referee decisions involved in that loss that made it harder for us, but they were much better in the first half than us. I think, and I've said this many times, why we have shown many times that we are a good team in big games, but also in other games, is that we have very good players and we can play very good football.

It's been very hard for us and a struggle for us to play the amount of games, so every time after a good game, even this City game [in November] we played three days after we played Real Madrid, and that has been our biggest problem this season: struggling playing, after a good result or a bad result, so many games. That has been the biggest issue for this team and not the games themselves because we have shown that we have quality players and we are a very good team. But the amount of games have been our biggest issue.

That's why I just said it's interesting for us to see now where we are after seven or eight or nine months. We've played much better against them at home. At Anfield, I don't think we deserved to lose, especially not after our second-half performance. Unfortunately, there was a big referee decision in that game as well, with the red card [not given] on Mo Salah, that didn't go in our favour. But now we have to show that if there's progress, we can also show that in an away game because it's usually tougher to play away from home than at Anfield.

On the importance of 'retaining an attacking element in the early stages of the game'...

Very important. I've felt this season multiple times how important it is to get a lead because that's what we've struggled with this season. It's much easier if you're 1-0 up or 2-0 up to keep the lead than being 1-1 or a goal down and you have to change the game. Scoring goals is vital in football, as we all know, and it helps you in many aspects – that's why I'm so happy Alex [Isak] is back. [In the] away game we scored from a set-piece, that really helps in every game of football [but] especially in the big games. It's so important that you have a positive set-piece balance, which we didn't have when we faced them at the Etihad this season because they scored from a set-piece... by the way, we scored as well but that was disallowed, so that makes it more difficult.

The first half at Anfield, City were dominating ball possession but you could also change the question and say how impressive was it that you dominated ball possession in the second half? Because how many teams can dominate ball possession against Man City throughout the last 10 years? So, that's what I mean with a big step forward compared to the game we played at the Etihad, but now we have to show it as well in their stadium, which is always more difficult than having 60,000 people at Anfield that are helping you out if you are pressing and giving you the energy you need if you face City. The good thing is it's an FA Cup tie, so we will have more fans than we usually have in an away game – and as we know from our fans, they will be loud. And I wouldn't be surprised if they would even be louder than the fans of City.