Arne Slot press conference: Victory at Sunderland, squad mentality and more

On dealing with the 'tough' conditions…

It didn't feel to me at all as a struggle because I think we played really, really, really well again. We didn’t face the weather, we faced Sunderland, who were until tonight unbeaten at home. They are a good team, [have a] good manager and [have a] difficult playing style to play against because, as we know from the game we played at home against them, it's a lot of long balls you have to defend and a lot of balls into the channels. I think we did that really well.

We controlled the second ball really good and from that second ball, we played some very good football. What I'm getting used to more and more now is that we miss a lot of chances, which we did tonight again. But the big exception for us tonight compared to all the other games we played against promoted teams, or teams that we were the better team, we were not able to score from a set-piece. Usually we concede one, but tonight we could score and that's the difference for us in this game.

On showing a 'reaction' following Manchester City…

I don't think that's a surprise to anyone if you follow this season. We've had so many setbacks, so many disappointments, so many times that we were the better team on the pitch and we didn't get what we deserved. But three days later the players performed again, showed up again and play usually a very good game. Not always leading to a result but always leading to the fact that we were the better team on the pitch. As we were, in my opinion, tonight. After only two days off, an away game in difficult circumstances because it's not only raining, but the pitch was of course heavy as well, usually that can impact something if you had one day less to recover compared to the other team, but I don't think I saw that today. I think I saw a very good performance from our side and throughout the 97 minutes.

On Florian Wirtz’s performance…

Not for the first time he was really good. But recently when he was really good, he was also involved in goals and assists. I think today he was very close and maybe should have been on the scoreboard with the amount of quality he has. But it's good to see, not only him, but also other players developing so well and playing another good game of football where we have such a big disappointment against [Manchester] City where we played so well [in the] second half. We deserved so much more than we got. Another time, another goal conceded in extra time and another penalty conceded. So then to bounce back as we did today is a big compliment and a lot of credit to the players.

On whether it was a 'perfect response' after a defeat…

Yeah, but we've shown that response so many times already this season and now it's not the consistency and the results because it's not a coincidence that we win here tonight, or that we’ve won our games, because we're usually the better team on the pitch. It's more surprising to see that from all the times that we were the better team we didn't make wins. But actually, today you could again see the reason why.

If you create so many chances and also moments where we could have four versus three situations or three versus two situations then that should with the quality we have - and that will, by the way - lead to us scoring much more chances and much more goals. In the end we needed a set-piece to score, and we usually have against these teams 10 set-pieces, but we usually - and people from Liverpool can tell you - we don't score from set-pieces. But tonight we did and that's the biggest difference to Burnley at home… I can come up with all these [examples]; Leeds away, Leeds at home - all these games.

On if he was 'pleased' overall…

Pleased with another good performance. Like I said, if we want to make it simple for ourselves, it would be nice if we started scoring more goals.

On his team showing 'resilience' late in the game…

Yeah. I think we had the biggest chance in the extra time with Mo Salah and a few other moments, but at least to see how we defended because there were a few times that we had to throw our bodies in front of the ball. I think Wata [Endo] - I pick him out because he had the injury. He stayed on the pitch with the injury he got and challenged for another - in a set-piece - for another duel.

That mentality I saw throughout the whole team. Ibou [Konate] played a great game against [Brian] Brobbey, who is always difficult to play against. Mo was working, doing his work off the ball a lot. Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] had a few very important tackles, but it was also really helpful that our fans were so loud. This stadium is, of course, known for the home fans, but I think the away fans tonight were incredible as well, especially in the last 20 minutes - throughout the whole game, but especially in the last 20 minutes when the team needed them. Maybe they felt that, OK, it's gone wrong so many times in the final part of the season, and the manager has just tried to bring in defenders and tried to bring in an offensive player, but maybe now it's up to us to help the team, as they have done so many times, and that worked out really well. So, I hope every time we have the lead - away or at home - our fans can be as supportive as they've been for so many times as they were tonight.

On Ibrahima Konate's recent form…

Impressed but not surprised. I think he's an example of almost our season. He’s been so unlucky. So unlucky. He played sometimes 89 minutes very good and then one moment just ruined our game and his game. Not always about him, but a few times that happened and everybody was focused on his mistake. But footballers make mistakes and not always the ball goes in.

Then just ask me about the last ten minutes, I said now the good thing is we did not concede a chance, because against City we did not concede a chance after the first minute and then it took City 84 minutes to get the second chance. But that one went in and so the good thing tonight was that we hardly conceded a chance at all. Ibou was a big part of that together with Virgil. But I like the whole mentality and the whole work rate of the team tonight.

Wataru Endo injury update

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