“Arne Slot assessed his team’s performance in the last round of the group stage”, — write: sport.ua
“That’s exactly what you want when starting the season in the Champions League – to finish in the top 8. It certainly helps because you’re missing a round, and at that stage you can sometimes run into a very tough opponent, as evidenced by the teams you just mentioned. So we are delighted to be going straight to the round of 16, especially considering that just two years ago we were in the Europa League and were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Atalanta. So, for two seasons in a row we are playing in the 1/8 finals, and if last year we wanted more, then this season we will definitely be even more hungry for success.
We have a lot of respect for the team we played today, but I expect Newcastle to be a stronger opponent than Qarabag – although Qarabag have shown they are a very good team this season. At the same time, we almost didn’t allow anything to the opponent. There weren’t six, seven or eight minutes when the other team was better than us, and usually in our matches it’s in those stretches that we concede. But today we made sure that the opponent did not have an advantage for a single minute, and that always helps.
I think the standards played a key role in our Champions League campaign and today as well, because a couple of goals were scored after the standards. It completely changes the flow and feel of the game. I’m very pleased with our performance: we were extremely sharp in both penalty areas, although after 2-0 I think we had a few chances to score the third goal.
We hardly allowed the opposition to create any chances and in the 92nd minute it was clear how much effort we put into getting back into the defense in what was perhaps their first and only counter-attack of the second half – Federico Chiesa, our ‘number nine’, was defending inside the goal area. I said recently: if we get better in both penalty areas, it will be very difficult for any team to play against us. But showing it once is not enough, we have to show it constantly.
Injuries make you think about rentals or transfers? As a club, we always make decisions that, at least in our opinion, are reasonable. We are not only looking at the short term, but also the long term – that’s why we sign young players: very talented, but ones that can still develop. And now we see this progress in several football players. It always depends on whether there are players available who we think can help us, whether we can afford them and whether it will also be beneficial in the long term, given that our injured players will eventually return.
I already said that we don’t have a squad with four right defenders, 12 midfielders and three or four “nines” – it doesn’t work like that. Therefore, we must act wisely both in the near future and with an eye on the future. First, let’s see how Jeremy Frimpong is doing. He might not be able to play on Saturday, but he might be ready in a day or two. We are now moving to a one-game-a-week schedule, which usually means fewer injuries, but you can never be sure.
The return of Gomez and Jones? Curtis has been sick, so we’ll have to wait and see how things go. Joe may have muscle problems. I hope and expect that Konate will be fit, but I can’t guarantee it yet – we are very much counting on him to be back. With Joe, the situation is more complicated.
How do I rate Endo’s game at right back? Positive, as we are used to from Vata. You give him a task – and he performs it to the maximum. He played very well in this match. The only thing missing is the number of connections on the wing or the quality of one-on-one play like Jeremy Frimpong’s. But what he does is very reliable, focused and concentrated. The advantage was that we were actually attacking all the time. This helps when only attacking players are on the pitch. The real test for our back line will of course be the match – if we have to play the same squad – against Newcastle or Manchester City, who I rate slightly above Qarabag. But today, it is definitely nice to play with such an attacking line-up, when you have the ball, score a lot of goals and hardly allow the opponent anything.
Frimpong’s injury? It’s a muscle injury, but I don’t know how long the recovery will take. This is not a knee injury, but muscles usually suffer due to overload. Not always, of course, because he pulled a muscle in a specific episode, but such a risk exists. That’s why I also took Hugo and Florian out of the game – these are the players who are not so used to such a load,” said Arne.