soccer

Slot on team fitness, Salah's drought and Ngumoha's improvement

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has been speaking to the media before Saturday's Premier League game against West Ham at Anfield (kick-off 15:00 GMT).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

  • Jeremie Frimpong has trained "a few times this week" so is available to face West Ham.
  • Florian Wirtz remains sidelined with an injury which he described as "a disappointment for him and for us". On the timescale for his return, he added: "I don't know. Usually when I say that, I do know and I don't want to share that. But this time, I honestly don't know."
  • Slot said ending Mohamed Salah's goalless run is a "challenge he has" and "a team thing they have to improve" on.
  • More on Salah: "He sets his own standards and they were so, so high. When he doesn't score for a few games, it means people are surprised. We are used to Mo scoring a lot of goals, but we also know this has happened before and in the end, he always starts scoring again."
  • Slot added that Salah "is not our only attacker that's not scoring as much", as Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo have also not scored as many recently.
  • On another win putting pressure on teams battling for the top four: "We're not so focused on other teams and mainly on ourselves. We know we need to win a lot of games and that is what our focus is on. We are aware of the league table."
  • He said Rio Ngumoha's playing time has improved massively over the past few weeks because he "developed and became a better player".
  • On facing another team near the bottom of the league after struggling to break down Nottingham Forest last weekend: "I cannot manipulate the fact we have struggled a lot against the teams who were promoted or near the bottom. We understand how difficult winning games in general is - it doesn't matter where they are in the table."

Listen to commentary of Liverpool vs West Ham on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds at 15:00 on Saturday.

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[BBC]

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