What’s the latest team news?

Manor Solomon’s knee was severely injured during practice, which will cause him to lose a large amount of time in games over the next months. That is disappointing because he was already helping us and developing into his position. It’s not ideal when you lose a guy in that position with Ivan Perisic already injured.Brennan Johnson is close to being 100%, but he’s still not there, so we’re kind of hoping the international break will provide him the extra time he needs to be available immediately after. Everyone from the previous week is fine. Sonny is okay. He worked out the past two days with no issues.

Do you have to wrap James Maddison in cotton wool?

Nobody is swaddled in cotton wool, buddy. Here, there is no cotton wool. Only terrible wire and uncomfortably tight uniforms exist, dude. They all put forth a lot of effort every day; their programs are just different. Madders put in a lot of effort all week and didn’t skip a single practice.

With the VAR decision, the audio coming out out, now the dust has settled, what’s your view?

It’s a bit weird because normally when something big happens you feel it during the match but I didn’t and I don’t think anyone really felt that something big happened either. Maybe I was just focused on the game, but I just didn’t feel it.

After the game, the referee mentioned to me that there was going to be a statement coming up but even after that, the first question I got wasn’t about that.

It wasn’t until I arrived at the press conference, and all you guys were muttering amongst yourselves and weren’t listening to me, that I knew that something important was going on.

And then you sort of realize what happened.

This is a fairly significant thing to happen even during a football game.

Look, anything I say is going to be viewed through the prism of us being the victims of the mistake.

The facts are that the goal was a legitimate goal that was not awarded. You look at why it wasn’t awarded because that’s the first thing you ask: obviously something has gone wrong. It became clear that there was no integrity issue, there was no misuse of the law, there was a simple error in communication, an error, a mistake, and it cost Liverpool.

I understand that it’s an unusual situation because it’s never happened before. However, we’re in a new space with technology where I believe there will be many firsts in the way we approach this.

My opinion is that we need an error-free, faultless system, which I don’t think exists and probably won’t unless we want to convert our game into another code where the event lasts for 4 hours and we explain every decision.

If you’d been aware of the error during the game, would you have done a Bielsa and given Liverpool a goal?

Again, I don’t think managers should be the arbiters of these things. We have a lot of responsibility at our clubs, but we’re not the stewards. I wouldn’t make a decision which could potentially see your club go down based on what I believe. At that point, if someone told me that they could explain everything that happened in the space of 30 seconds, it wouldn’t happen. It’s different if it’s clear but it’s pretty clear that it was a mistake, a mistake, as I said, through a lack of communication, but it wasn’t something that could be easily explained because if it could be, I’d expect there would be more screaming during the game.

You got that video from The Fonz, will it be happy days if the club go to top of the table on Saturday?

First of all, let me express what a gentleman Henry Winkler is. I was overjoyed when he wrote me a message. When you talk about your heroes, you can sometimes feel let down, but such a wonderful gentlemen. Despite my wife’s objections, if he sends me an autographed poster, I will unquestionably hang it on my wall. Who cares if we win and take the lead for a full day? We must triumph. It’s a challenging game; our focus is on performing well and playing at our best because, if we don’t, we’ll be concentrating on a terrible performance regardless of where we stand in the competition.

How resilient will Luton be?

Yes, I believe they will Even if their results may not have been as good as they would have hoped, all of their games have been quite close; nobody has completely blasted them away. That sort of indicates…Rob did a great job in the beginning to get them promoted. They accomplished that thanks to the tenacity and vigor they bring to the Premier League. They’ll battle for everything, and that’s what we anticipate happening tomorrow. We need to play our football and try to influence the game to the kinds of areas in which we want to be dominant. If we don’t, the game becomes really challenging for us.

Will your team have to adapt to Kenilworth Road?

No, I don’t believe that’s the case. For us, we’re at the point where we want to try and keep developing our football. Aspects of our game are still something we’re learning. No matter who our opponents are, where we play, or anything else, we must remain self-centered and play our best football if we want to keep getting better. It’s still about us improving our game at this point.

What do you make of the Luton story?

It was a wonderful tale. I’ve been following English football for a while, and I recall Luton once being one of the top teams. They undoubtedly dropped in the football hierarchy’s pecking order, but their effort to claw their way back up is fantastic for the community. Rob did a fantastic job. Some pretty large clubs were competing for promotion even the previous year. He managed to raise them. Any team that is going to play them is going to have a difficult game.

Giovani Lo Celso has been called up for Argentina, is he fit enough to play a part for you this weekend?

Both Gio and Bryan Gil spent the majority of this week in training. It’s great that they are both back and are available.

You’ve been an international boss, when it comes to Son and his injury issues and his lack of training in recent weeks, have you had a word with Jurgen Klinsmann to ask if he can manage him carefully for these two friendlies?

Sonny is just as vital to his country’s team as he is to us. Without a doubt, Sonny will take care of himself, and Jurgen will watch after him. I have no right to impose my will on national team managers. I’ve stood on the opposing side of the argument. When I was in charge of the national team, I took care of the players even though I knew they had to return to their clubs. Sonny and Jurgen will effectively control him during that procedure, in my opinion. Nothing very drastic needs to be done. Sonny is the ideal person to gauge that because he hasn’t missed a game for us yet and is making a big difference.

You mentioned on Saturday that Matt Wells deserves credit for Pedro Porro’s form as he’s been working with the defence, can I ask how the rest of your coaching structure works and which of the other coaches work with what areas of the squad?

I have some great coaches. When you have that, it’s about utilising your resources to the best of your ability. They all have different skillsets, different areas of expertise, and what they’re passionate about. Matty is passionate about the defensive end of the game, Mile Jedinak helps with the defensive end, Ryan Mason is passionate about the attacking end of the game for us, Chris Davies oversees the whole thing, Rob Burch is the only one that takes care of the goalkeepers and I wouldn’t trust anyone else.

It’s just about them doing a specific job. For us, it’s really important for all the lads to get consistent feedback. The feedback I’m giving is in a collective sense, and individually it’s important for them to have that time with one of our coaches.

I thought that with this setup, and I haven’t done this before, it would work well if we had almost like line coaches that look after a specific part of our team.

There’s been a suggestion that Darren England, the VAR official from last week, won’t be involved in Liverpool games from now on this season, is that fair?

I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s been decided yet. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. It’s a big mistake, but it’s a human being who made that mistake. I just don’t think it needs to go that far. I think we all want to make sure that what happened doesn’t happen again.

Listen to the audio. I’m not an expert on these things. And that’s another thing. Don’t ask managers or players about the game rules. We don’t really know half of the rules. The referee does. We shouldn’t comment on them. If a referee said something about the tactics of a game, we’d all jump up and down.

But at some point, we have to respect their opinion. I’ve never been one to complain about a decision in the past, and I’ll probably never be one in the future. But if they’re making decisions based on mistakes that are part of the game, that’s part of the game?

It’s not meant to be perfect. Just like managers and players can make mistakes, so can referees. From my point of view, when I was listening to that audio saying ‘check complete’, someone clearly thought it was the best way to end it and it’s worked until now. I would have thought that the logical thing to do is say ‘goal for Liverpool’ and there’s nothing. I’m saying this with the ignorance that I don’t know how it’s actually set up.

When you’re listening to that, you’re probably thinking there are better ways to communicate a clear decision on such a big stage. I hope they’re addressing you, not the person who made the mistake, and I think that’s a shame for the game. It’s like me letting a player off the hook just because they made an error. My job is to help them improve, not say ‘now you’re never playing again’.

With the winger injuries recently, you’ve got spoken about the need for another couple of transfer windows to build this squad, is that for moments like this?

To some degree. But at the same time, if you look at the wingers, there are a few that we know. It’s sod’s law. I’ve seen this before, and it’s something that I’ve had to deal with myself in the past. You think you’re well covered, and then three injuries happen in the same space.

There’s Ivan, there’s Manor, then there’s Brennan Johnson and there’s Bryan Gil, who hasn’t really trained yet. That’s four pretty good wingers.

You’d think you’d be pretty well covered coming into the season, and you’d have to look at the other side of things, with Sonny on the other, and Richy on the wide side.

I don’t think it’s a squad issue for me, it’s more the circumstances we’re in right now, but that’s a different story.

I still think we’ll need at least two windows to get to where we want to be if we want to play European football.

You used Alejo Veliz last week and had Jamie Donley on the bench, can they both make an impact if required at Luton?

They are essentially different cases. We definitely signed Alejo, but he had a history of injuries when he arrived, so we proceeded cautiously in light of our preparation and the rigors of the Premier League. He’s had a lot of work, but we brought him in to support us in the front third and as a part of the first-team squad. He’s becoming more physically fit and had a successful two weeks of training. It was terrific to have him on board, and I have no doubt that he’ll keep working hard to support and benefit us.

He’s done really well with the young boys and guys like Jamie. Our U21’s have had really consistent results in their league and Jamie and Alfie Dorrington have really stood out for us. We’ve had them train with us but they’ve still got a long way and hard work ahead of them. It doesn’t mean they’re ahead of Alfie, who’s gone on loan, or even Dane Scarlett. There’s a fair amount of work ahead of them for all these young lads. Maybe part of their next step is going out on loan but, like life, there’s opportunities out there. If they take it and play well, it’ll speed up their development, but at this stage it’s a good thing to have them here. The level of training doesn’t drop when they’re in with us. That’s what’s most important. They’ve both done really well, Jamie in particular and Alfie in particular.

The U21s have been playing with a similar style to the first-team, is that your influence or someone at the top of the club?

I think it’s a combination of things. Simon Davies is the head of the academy and we talk on a regular basis. He has a very clear vision of what an academy should look and function like. I don’t think it should be a separate entity from the first-team because what you’re trying to do at academy level is develop players, not develop systems.

Playing a slightly different style of football isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but when it comes to the training, the intensity of the game, the pace of the game, there’s a very clear connection. I don’t want young players coming into our environment and struggling because they’re doing things that they’ve never done or experienced before.

I think Simon is the connection to all that. I’m more focused on the first team obviously, but the more we align it, the more likely it is that in these situations where we’re short on numbers or we have an injury, if there’s a left-wing player in the under-21s, here’s their opportunity and we need to create that.