After seeing his side undone by an excellent Dominik Szoboszlai free-kick to taste defeat at Liverpool, Mikel Arteta gave his thoughts in the post-match press conference.
He spoke about William Saliba’s injury, tactics and our gameplan and more.
Here is everything he had to say:
on William Saliba’s fitness:
He twisted his ankle during the warm-up, and he came in and he said he believed that he could carry on and play, but straight away in the first two actions. I could see that he couldn't cope, and we had to get him out unfortunately. But thank God we had Mosquera, which we put in for the first time in the Premier League. His debut, not expecting it at Anfield, and I think he was really, really good.
on if he thought the gameplan was working well:
We didn't do our gameplan to frustrate them; we did it to win it. I think we elevated the game and the dominance to a point that they had to raise it. They did, especially from the 60-78th minute, when then you could see that there were no margins in the game. When that happens, the game is going to be decided in two ways. One, with an individual error, and two, with a magic moment. Szoboszlai created a moment that was incredible, that has won the game, and that was the difference, nothing else.
on if our midfield was too conservative in the first half:
That's what we had. Martin Odegaard was injured, Kai cannot play, Merino is a player that is incredible with what he did there. We played with three attacking players, two attacking full-backs and after the game, I think it's too easy to say that.
on Declan Rice’s positioning today:
We believed it was the best thing [to do], especially the way we had to attack and the way they pressed him to get him in this position.
on if he’s worried about Saliba’s injury:
I am because you cannot play a game of that stature. After you tried [to], that means that there is something wrong.
on why the game changed in the second half:
Because this is Anfield and at some point, it's going to change. You cannot dominate Anfield for 95 minutes and it changed in various ways, especially because we didn't make the right decision when our keeper got the ball in their hands, we started to rush it, the turnovers, we didn't manage them so well so we could never glide as a team. They are going to create those moments without really creating any situations of danger.
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