Live Bar December 27, 2019 With the postponement of the Boxing Day match, Liverpool will travel to the early morning of Wednesday Beijing time to challenge Leicester City. In a press conference ahead of the match, the Liverpool manager talked about the COVID-19 pandemic, the team's readiness and a number of other issues of great concern to fans and the media.
About the situation within the team
The quarantined lads have all returned, including Fabinho, Van Dijk, Curtis Jones and Thiago, who also participated in the team's joint training yesterday. We also have a young player and two team staff members in quarantine.
About the intensive schedule
That shouldn't happen, I have to say the same thing every year, it's not right to play two games in a row on the 26th and 28th, what I say is the truth. I think we can find a solution, it's not difficult. Even in the absence of COVID-19, this can help the players.
About Mane, Salah and Keita postponed their report to the national team to play at Chelsea
It's good news, I'm thankful for that, I think it was the right decision. It's great that the lads can play in this game! After this game, they had to leave.
About Leicester City
Leicester City are currently in a bad position and they have a lot of players with injuries. Against Manchester City, we saw them trailing 4-0 before training, but it wasn't long before I was told the score had become 3-4. Apparently, they were very close to equalizing. Leicester City are a good team and Rogers has done a very good job.
On whether this was the toughest season of his coaching career
I don't know if it's the toughest season of my coaching career, but this time of year we have a really big problem, I can say that. However, it is not a problem for us because we are used to it. We're preparing for a long season, and that's all there is to it.
Uncertainty about COVID-19
I don't know what kind of mutated virus our people are infected with, in terms of the cases we've seen over the last two years, if you get vaccinated and boosted immunity, you won't have symptoms.
About academy players entering the first team
I am grateful to the academy for producing excellent young players whose areas we live in have given them special character.
About the League Cup win over Leicester City
Our young players played well and the atmosphere of that game was good. When they walk into the pitch in the second half, you can feel their desire to win, which is what I like.
About whether you want to be able to change 5 players per game
Yes, but we have to put the competitiveness of the team aside. It's true that Manchester City are better than the substitutes at Southampton and we are better than the bench players at Burnley. Other clubs don't want to change 5 players per game, so I don't think that's going to happen.
About the 2019 Boxing Day away win over Leicester City
After coming back from Qatar, we didn't know how to deal with the intensity of the game, and that response was really special. It was one of the best away games I've played since I became Liverpool manager, but we're not going to compare that to what's going on at the moment.
(Two monsters)
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