On the young players used against Qarabag…
Trey [Nyoni] and Amara [Nallo] came in and they’ve mainly come in games either in the League Cup or games where we were leading by a big margin. So for them it was a good first taste of first-team football – not [a] first taste but close to first taste. With Rio [Ngumoha], that is completely different, in my opinion. He also comes in when we need a goal or in moments when the game hasn’t been decided yet.
I think Trey showed when he came in that he comes closer and closer to a situation where I can also bring him in. He has developed really nicely in the last year, gets closer and closer to come in in moments that matter even more. That is how things work with young players – you make step after step after step until the manager trusts you enough to play in difficult moments. That has already happened for Rio, and Trey is really close to that moment. Amara is a bit further from that but very nice for him after his difficult start at the first team – two red cards – that he was mentally so strong, kept fighting, doing good in the U21s and now he got his reward [with] playing time in the first team.
On the battle for Champions League qualification…
Now we already thought that every single period was pivotal, so that hasn’t changed. But it’s obvious that the closer you come to the end, the less opportunities you have to make a mistake. We are now in a position that we cannot afford a lot of mistakes anymore because we’ve made far too many. And with mistakes I mean giving away goals in the last minute that don’t do any justice on the performance in terms of the score. So, it’s clear and obvious that the closer you come to the end – and that’s the same in the Champions League [when] you go to knockout stages – then there’s not a lot of room for mistakes anymore.
On consistency in selecting line-ups…
I think I showed last season that one of the things I like is consistency and playing as much as I can with the same players. That is what I’ve done at all my clubs every single time, which I’ve shown to England last season. Unfortunately for all the obvious reasons which I’m not going to go into again because people get so bored if I do this every time, I haven’t been able to play many times with the same line-up. Even within games, I have to – sometimes have to, sometimes think I need to – make so many substitutions.
So, that’s far from ideal, I can tell you that, but we accept the situation as it is and we make the best out of it. That’s why I have so much respect for the players, that no matter how many setbacks we have, no matter how many times we concede a goal in the last minute, if the next game arrives, from the start they’re immediately there to give everything they have. That has not always been enough to win as many games as we are used to at Liverpool – that’s also clear, but that is 99 out of 100 times not due to effort from my players.
