Arne Slot press conference: Brighton win, Salah, Szoboszlai, Jones and more

On Salah saying Szoboszlai is 'one of the best players in the world'...

I think there are a lot of very good to elite football players in the world, but I definitely agree with Mo that Dominik is one of them.

On Szoboszlai adding more goals to his game this season...

When I said that [a Liverpool midfielder needing to score goals] I maybe had to add that you need to be able to run a lot if you play in the midfield of Liverpool. But I think what I meant was as a No.10 you also need to produce goals. Now he hasn't always played in the No.10 position but he is producing more and more goals. I think Dominik is a great example of the model we are using here at this club. We sign young players from another league – in this situation that was Leipzig, where he was already known for being a player that was really physical. But I think it's fair for me to say that the player that we brought in was already good but where he is now, I think [he is] much better than where he was two-and-a-half years ago.

That is what you get if you sign young players and you give them a bit of time and you let them play a lot. That's why I also think that that trajectory he's been through is the same trajectory we can expect from other young players we have that we've signed from other leagues. You can already see their progress but I've said many times that next season or at the end of this season or in two seasons, players like Hugo [Ekitike] and Florian [Wirtz] – because these are the two that come from the Bundesliga – will be even better next year than they are already now, because they are all already very good players for us.

Read our match report from Anfield here

On the performance of Salah...

It's very nice to have him on the scoresheet again and him having an assist. But I think what I like the most at the moment, that he's scoring goals is something you can almost expect, but he also helps the team a lot defensively. That is something very positive – what the team also needs – and I think more and more players are now capable of playing at this intensity level every three days. That is where we struggled a lot in the beginning of the season, where it was sometimes hard for us to bring the intensity level once a week, let alone every three days. But now we're able to do so, we see more and more the quality we have. That's why I've said so many times already that the future looks really bright for this club with these players, and I think the recent seven, eight, nine, 10 games are showing that as well.

On how he thought Jones played at right-back...

Very well. Curtis is a very good player – I've said this many times also to him and he agrees with me, by the way! But unfortunately for him, he's playing in a line where I have many good players and also [they are] available. So if he would be playing in another position, he would have played much, much more. But that's the only line – touch wood – where we haven't had our problems this season, and then you sometimes need him or other players in different positions and so many times they've done well. Dominik has played so many different positions, Ryan [Gravenberch] played centre-back and now tonight Curtis had to play as a full-back and he did really well. It was very pleasing to see that the first goal was an assist from the left full-back to the right full-back – that probably tells you a lot about the intentions these players have when they step on the pitch.

On Rio Ngumoha's disallowed goal...

That's the only thing that was not different compared to all the other games we played – that there was a referee decision that was not in our favour. That has been multiple times the situation this season. I also said many times when I sat here or at the AXA that we need to make sure that if decisions go against you, that you're still able to win. We have to become that good that we don't rely on the fact that against [Manchester] City there was not a red card for [Marc] Guehi or all the other decisions that are made this season that didn't go in our favour.

Tonight, again, there was a decision that didn't go in our favour which should have been different because he was onside, but we were still able to win 3-0 so now no-one talks about it. I don't follow everything, but I don't think there's been a lot spoken about how many times we've been disadvantaged by a referee decision this season. Unfortunate for him because it would have been a nice moment for him to score a goal and for Cody [Gakpo] to have an assist because I think Cody played a very good game tonight as well.

On whether he 'enjoyed' the experience of having no VAR...

In general, I enjoy watching football without VAR because if you then score you're like, 'It's a goal' so that was the same with the [disallowed Gakpo goal]. I looked at the linesman and he didn't raise his flag so I was like, 'That's nice' but then a few seconds later he did raise his flag, which was correct because he was offside and they also explained to me that he wanted to know who scored, the moment he heard it was Cody he said then he's offside, so a fair and good decision. I like VAR only for the clear and obvious things and I'm not meaning a red card yes or no for Guehi on Mo Salah because I thought it was 100 to 0 but I've heard people saying they could live with that decision. So even that decision was not 100 to 0, 80 to 20 so let's stay away from that and only go to offside yes or no, ball over the line yes or no and for the rest the referee referees the game. That's my opinion, but that's not going to happen. That's the way I would like the VAR to be. I think we're now so used to VAR that I would prefer to have VAR during a game, to be honest.

On whether Szoboszlai has the attributes to be a 'future leader or captain'...

Yes, but he's still young. I think he has a lot of attributes already, especially when it comes to leading by example. But there's still a step to make in terms of leadership, being vocal, being a voice in the dressing room if I compare him to Virgil [van Dijk], which is completely normal because Virgil is 34 and has seen probably James Milner or Jordan Henderson and these players. So it's really good for Dominik that he sees Virgil as well. That would be a next step for him, to be as vocal and as loud as Virgil is. That comes with time, I think, but for all the other things, he has a lot to become a very influential player for Liverpool and you could call that a leader.

On whether Wataru Endo has a chance of returning to action this season...

There is definitely a chance, but he will be out for a while. We cannot say exactly how long yet. That is sometimes different with every injury. Sometimes you can make that diagnosis straight away, sometimes you need a few more days to see how things develop and that last thing is with Wata. He will not be in the squad next week and he will not be in the squad the next month, but we're hoping towards the end of the season he has a chance to be there with us again. That also depends on the upcoming days where that will lead to.

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