On Salah’s return to the squad and his performance…
I think the reason why he wasn’t in Milan was his interview and the question is always – and everybody has a different opinion about that – should he be once, twice, three times, four times, four months, 12 years… every manager makes [a] different decision in that. He wasn’t involved in the game against Milan, I spoke to him yesterday and usually I never say anything about what we talk about, I am not going to make an exception now but I think actions speak louder than what has been said. He was in the squad again and when I had to make my first substitution, I brought him in and he performed as I think every fan – including me – would like him to perform today.
On Salah’s applause of the fans at the end of the game…
I think he wasn’t the only player who walked around the pitch thanking the fans because the fans deserved a thank you from us. I think our players worked incredibly hard today to keep a clean sheet and for the first time in weeks – or maybe I should say months – we had a little bit of luck with that as well. I think we did a lot of things well, but also had a little bit of luck. We’ve had games where we’ve not conceded a chance but conceded three goals. Today we definitely did concede chances but they didn’t go in. Mo is going to go to the AFCON now, I hope he is going to do very well and in the meantime we have to play here without him with not that many players available at the moment. The good thing is we play on Saturday and then a week in between and then again Saturday. That’s the situation.
On whether he ‘hopes Salah comes back after AFCON and has that kind of performance again’…
Yeah. I think he’s a Liverpool player and the moment he’s there I like to use him when we need him. Today he didn’t start as he did a few times before not, but in the one-and-a-half season before he started I think every game. Today when he came in, like I just said, he had a performance like you would want him to give. I think he was close to another assist, I think he was shocked to see Virgil [van Dijk] next to him in that long sprint! He was close to scoring when Fede [Chiesa] almost assisted him. He was a threat and that’s very important because if you play with attackers, you’re hoping they are a threat to the other team. Hugo was that as well and Florian [Wirtz] was that also.
On if he is ‘satisfied that issues are resolved or whether there are still things to resolve’…
For me, there’s no issue to resolve. For me, he’s now the same as any other player. You talk to your players if you are happy or unhappy with things. But there’s nothing to talk about after what happened against Leeds after the game.
On the performance and appearing ‘more solid defensively’…
That’s funny, this is what people now say if you win 2-0 and then all of a sudden we were solid. But I think we conceded in one game more than we did in the last four games. But now all of a sudden it’s solid because we won the game. And when we had a draw or are conceding in the last minute against Leeds, I assume that people weren’t as positive as after this game. But we had a lot of chances as well. In my opinion, we are starting to play better and better on the ball as well. And from the last five games we’ve played, we kept three clean sheets and that is something to build on, especially after conceding four against PSV [Eindhoven] and three against Nottingham Forest.
