The Reds boss fielded questions on those subjects during the third and final part of his pre-Crystal Palace press conference. Read his answers below…
On the numbers Salah has maintained over the course of this season…
Yes, that’s obviously true. And, no, I am not surprised at all, to be honest. I am happy about the fact because it’s easy to see where we would be without Mo’s goals. But it’s for all the other teams the same, without the goals their top scorers or whatever score – the guys with the biggest numbers – it would all look differently, of course. We know the team helps him a lot, but Mo carries a lot as well, I have to say. That’s clear. It’s his desire, it’s his professionalism, it’s his greed as well which helps us completely. And this year is one of his best years without having the best number of all he had. It’s a really top year for him, because for a striker in a team that is not flying constantly, scoring these numbers is absolutely exceptional. That’s what makes him really special.
On his squad and the summer transfer window…
So, whatever we do or not do in the next transfer window, for sure we will not use it as any kind of excuse. We did what we did in the past with the way we did it; when there was money we spent it, when there was no money we didn’t spend it, and here we are. That’s how it is. Yes, I’m very happy with my squad – very, very happy. Could this squad improve? Yes, like each squad could. Is that affordable? I don’t know. Is it necessary? I don’t know. Whatever happens, we will see, I don’t know in this moment, to be honest. We have to make decisions in and out, all these kind of things, it’s normal in a summer.
There’s a moment in the pre-season when I hope then we have the team together we will go through the season [with]. In that moment we will work on that we are able to be a really uncomfortable opponent. That’s the most important thing. We might not be the best team in the world at the start of the season, but we want to be again the team who nobody wants to play against because we are that good. And I think that’s possible. I really think my responsibility is to improve the team without signings as well, honestly. If a season is not like this where it’s a lot not in your hands, but if you have players available, you have our players – all high-quality players – we have everything. We have experience, we have players in the best age and we have youth, so that’s good. And that’s my main focus in the moment and the rest really we have to see. But whatever other clubs are doing will not influence our business, for sure not.
Last time out: Burnley 0-3 Liverpool
On whether this has been his most difficult season as a manager, what he has learned from it and whether he has improved from it…
Was it the most difficult? Yes. It was the most difficult year of my life, and the season was obviously in this year, because I never thought I [would] have to deal with a pandemic. Not me personally, but us all. I found and find that really difficult to deal with, to be honest. What did I learn? That sleep is overestimated. Am I a better manager? Better, I’m not sure, but much more experienced. I spoke this morning to Pep [Lijnders]; managers have a licence for what we are doing and you need to renew that from time to time. When you are in a job it’s quite difficult to find time to do that. I said, ‘Actually, coaches or managers who are in a job shouldn’t get asked for renewing, it should just get renewed’ because no day is like the day before. It’s always new, it’s always a new problem, always something else. Experience is important but it doesn’t help always, that’s just the job. Are we better? I don’t know. Are we more experienced? Definitely. We made so many experiences we couldn’t have made in any other years. So, yes, there will be a time when I will appreciate that – but it will be in the future, it’s not in the moment.