On whether Chiesa’s future is at Liverpool…
As long as he is here he is definitely at Liverpool and I have no reason to believe something is going to change. He’s had a hard time last season, getting his match fitness ready. Unfortunately for him, he missed out on our Asia tour as well, so then you miss quite a lot, but not only him – Joe Gomez the same and we’ve lost Conor Bradley. So, all my substitutions were also related to players who probably couldn’t go for 90 minutes. Federico, when we needed him, I brought him in. At 2-2 you need your No.9, we brought him in and he delivered and that’s always positive for your future at the club.
On why he thinks supporters have taken to Chiesa so well…
That’s difficult for me to tell you because although I am also a fan of this club I am never standing on the Kop and I don’t come up with these songs. The only thing I can come up with maybe is that Federico had a great history, he was a big player deciding to go from Italy to England. You don’t see it that much, players from Italy going to England. I don’t know – maybe it’s also a nice song to sing! But then I probably don’t give him the credit he deserves. I cannot give you the exact answer but that might have something to do with it. He had a very important goal in England for his national team. Maybe our fans remember that.
On the first-half incident involving Semenyo…
I think it is under investigation with the police now and the club made a very clear statement about what we feel about this. Unfortunately, we definitely have to talk about this, it’s a good thing you talk about this and it’s a good thing that I have to answer this, but after actually this day should be about Diogo and about how the tribute was. But we definitely need to address this because it’s unacceptable in every football stadium, let alone at Anfield. I spoke to him [Semenyo] after the game that we will try to do everything to find that person. I am not 100 per cent sure but I think they already found him. That’s a good thing.
Wherever we can help him we will try to do so. Big credit to him, if something happens like this and you can perform so well in the second half then he’s not only a great player, because that I can see [with] how fast he is, but he is also very strong mentally. If something like that happened [and] to get such a second-half performance, that sums up him as a person and him as a player. But, again, [it’s] unacceptable in football in general, let alone at Anfield.
On how Salah is feeling after his reaction at full-time…
I am not sure because I didn’t ask him. I actually didn’t want to go in after the game because I found it so special how our fans reacted today and how they kept on singing at the end of the game for Diogo. I think the whole day and the whole game is, every time you think you cannot expect more from Liverpool fans they top this or they overperform. Again, what a tribute and I think Mo felt after the game how special that was and probably he felt the emotion.
