, :“Ryan trained yesterday, Isak and Jones didn’t yet.
Timescale? I said many times, the end phase of the injury, things can go slow or faster. Let’s wait and see where they are. Ryan trained yesterday and is with us today and we’ll make the call if he can start. The other two 99.9% not in the squad.”
: “I am happy with the team, the quality we have and convinced by the strategy and policy we have. But that makes it the issue, not all of them had a proper pre-season or have been injured, so when 3/4 injured you go back to 15 or 16. I am convinced 20 is enough but we are struggling to keep them fit for obvious reasons.
“Isak came to us Sept 1 and it has been harder to keep them fit, so if a few aren’t available it comes to the same players. Maybe last season we were lucky and now unlucky? But we’ve had a few away games with only a few days rest in between. No excuses, before people say. We have to manage the situation, 3 games in 7 or 8 days. So nothing to do woth squad depth more just injuries and availability of players.”
: “The last question I was expecting! My focus is getting Liverpool back on winning ways. Contract talks, if they are even there, we never speak about this here. So let’s start winning again, my main focus.”
: “We handle the situation as it is. Alex [Isak], let me use as an example, pre-season was inside the season. People ask why he plays? Otherwise I have to play Hugo every game. Both strikers, Owen Hargreaves showed me, both played 34 games last season, we play 60 over here, so I need Alex having as many games as he can. And that has been something with him and a few others, – Frimpong, Bradley – if one is out one has to play more, hence Szoboszlai at right-back more.
That has been something every team, so it’s not an excuse but it was a bit different than last season, last season they all had one year PL experience as a minimum, they stayed fit. Now some have to play more than you want them to but it is just the situation as it is. We have enough to play the games but I have to take care of a few of them, why I made the decision not to play 7 or 8.”
’ : “Maybe learning comes later, mainly focused on how I can change and evaluate the decisions made afterwards. My focus isn’t looking back but how can we get a good performance on Saturday. The learning part comes later, the focus is on the future and is on how we can get a good result and performance vs Aston Villa.”
“The thing that gives me the most confidence is the quality of the players we have and the amount of chances they are creating. This will lead to these players scoring more goals than we have done.”
“I think first half vs Crystal Palace was similar to 60 mins vs Brentford.
“We have to address certain other things. If I speak about what we have to improve, people say I am making excuses! A lot of positives to go into this weekend and the amount of chances we create is still good enough for the competitions we want to compete for.”
: “When people ask me why it was difficult and I try to explain why. People don’t ask me can I come up with excuses and then I give an answer. I underestimate a lot of analysts throughout the country, if you ask me why it is tough, to say this without opening the eyes of upcoming opponents… These two teams [Aston Villa and Man City] bring it out from the back more [than long balls] but they are very good at it. Villa beat City via a set piece.”
: “I have won games in the past when I went away from my beliefs, so I am more than open to adapt to certain situations. I don’t think the story is we concede chance after chance after chance. It is absolutely not like this. Apart from Palace maybe. All the other games we deserved more than we got.
I don’t see us conceding a lot of chances, so I don’t see a reason to change the style totally but we need to do better.”
: “It goes against my beliefs but I have won games in the past against my beliefs like City away. I would be more than open to adapt in certain situations.”
:”I don’t think the story is we concede chance after chance after chance. It is absolutely not like this, apart from Palace maybe. All the other games we deserved more than we got. Even this week, we only conceded 3 big chances, but all 3 went in, though they were big chances. I don’t see us conceding a lot of chances, so I don’t see a reason to change the style totally, but we need to do better.”
‘ : “It’s better to do it the way they did it than we did. If you don’t win at the beginning, people say it’s not the same team; you win and then it’s positive again. With us, it’s the opposite. Most teams are on around the same points, apart from Arsenal, so it says the Premier League is tough. You can see the signs of Villa; their playing style is really good. They didn’t make a habit of [losing].”
‘ : “It gets more important in every Premier League game. It’s never helpful ending with a set piece v Man Utd conceding and we concede another one from a throw-in straight away. We defended 16 set pieces and 15 we defended well but we are at this moment where 15 isn’t enough.”
