On comments made by Mohamed Salah at the weekend…
People told me about this, but I have said many times we don’t share this over here – at least I don’t share this over here. The only thing I can say is if you look at my line-ups, Mo is more in than out, so that quote I can give you.
On whether those comments could cause a distraction…
We want his numbers to be at where they are at the moment because those are the numbers Mo always has had and still has, so that’s the positive thing. I don’t think he is distracted at all, I haven’t seen that. After the [Manchester] United game where he made some comments, I haven’t seen it after a post I was told about, he just kept on scoring. I didn’t see anything today, he is just fully focused on the game tomorrow. I think these kind of things are inside here, probably inside the media and all the fans talk about it, which is completely normal, but if you would have been at the AXA today I don’t think any player talked about it, at least not when I was there.
They always give each other a bit of stick, so maybe they did this now as well, but players are also all focused on the short term and that’s Madrid and that’s [Manchester] City. But the time Mo’s contract is ending, players don’t look at it that way. We as a club do, but the players don’t. So I don’t think there is any distraction at all for him, for the players and definitely not for me. I worked yesterday on preparing the team in the best possible way and there was not one time in my mind I thought, ‘I am sitting there tomorrow talking about Mo.’
On facing Real and City in the same week…
It is a big game. I think Real Madrid, Manchester City dominated Europe – and the leagues – for a few years now, combined with Liverpool because Liverpool were always up there as well competing with these two clubs. It’s a special week for us, especially because we play two times at home, but when this week is done then again a big week is coming up with Newcastle away and the Merseyside derby. If you are Liverpool you always play big games, but these two are special because these three clubs have dominated the league in Europe for so many years recently, so it’s a special week to play.
On the start to the season and the popularity of the team and staff…
Results have been really good – and results are always done by the players. If they have very good results then that is always good for the manager and for the press officer and for everyone who works at the club. We also know how much effort we have to put in to win these games and that’s why we always have to give credit to the players that put this effort in to get these results. As a result of that, the players are popular – like you just heard, because Mo is quite popular over here – and maybe the manager that is part of those results as well.
