The Liverpool head coach met with reporters at the AXA Training Centre to preview the Premier League champions' final away game of the 2024-25 season.

See every word the Dutchman had to say on transfers, assessing his squad, preparations for Monday night's clash and more…

I think again it's going to be a boring answer. So for the whole season it was about the contracts of three players and now we are arriving in a time where everybody wants to know which players we are going to bring in – and the answer is going to be the same. We don't talk about the players we want to bring in in public until the moment they have signed for us, and then you can ask me everything about them.

What I can tell you is that we already have Conor Bradley who can play really good in that position; Joe Gomez has played in that position multiple times. So it's not like when Trent [Alexander-Arnold] is leaving, I have no clue what to do anymore. But as a club we are always looking at interesting players that can strengthen our squad. But that's the general answer, not talking about an individual.

You have to accept cookies in order to view this content on our site.

As you know, I wasn't here in the last few days and neither was Trent, so I haven't spoken to him yet. Today is the first day we come back together. We feel this is also a very good lead-up to our game on Monday, because I have said before that it is quite difficult for a team that already won the league to train so many days in a row if you've already won something. So you need to find the balance between days off and preparing very well for the next game. So, we train today, tomorrow and Sunday, that's three days in a row to be very well prepared for Brighton.

Keep in mind that these players never had a few days off during the season because we were in the FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League – and of course the Premier League – for a long time. So where other teams maybe had a few days off during the season, we hardly ever had that. That's not an answer to your question but I wanted to make that clear. And then in answer to your question if Trent is involved, yes or no, that is why I told you this – because it's the first day we train after a few days off. So it's quite early for me now to say what the team would look like and what the squad would look like for Monday.

I think the honest answer is yes. Although, I cannot look into all of their heads. But I think it's clear to everyone that if we would still compete for the Premier League then there would have been a few days off as well but probably we wouldn't have gone somewhere else. Because I don't think we are the only team that if you play on Sunday and the next week is Monday, that you give them a few days extra.

I think the honest answer is that there is a difference but if I look at the way we played the Arsenal game, I saw a team that wanted to compete against Arsenal from the first second until the last. Even when we were having some problems in the second half, they were able to come back into the game so that tells you the mentality is still very good. But it was a home game. And what is the main thing for us, it doesn't matter if you won the league yes or no, if you play Chelsea away, Arsenal at home and Brighton away, these are difficult games to play. That's why I was also so happy that we were already enough points clear to clinch the title against Tottenham.

Yeah, it definitely means a lot to me. I didn't know the exact numbers. One of the first games we played away, I mentioned this to the players; I showed them their away form in a team meeting in one of the away games [that] I think this we have to improve, one of the things we have to improve – not the only thing – if we want to be able to be there in the end competing for the league.

That's what we did really well throughout the whole season, our away form has been good. But our home form has been quite good as well. That's the only way in a difficult league like this to challenge, because [there are] so many good teams, so many teams are able to win more games in a row. So if you want to win the league over here you need to have both, good away form and good home form.

That's the nice part of your jobs, if we win it you will tell me this. If we lose it, we will get the blame for a few days off and our head was somewhere else. This is all the nice parts of your job. For me, Chelsea away is one of the most difficult away games in the season. Brighton away, I do you think you know what Arsenal did there, what [Manchester] City did there.

So if we are not able to get a result over there, for me that has nothing to do with players enjoying a few days off – but this will probably be the story in the media. Or you would disappoint me because in Holland this would definitely be the story of the media! But maybe you guys pick a different idea. That's why if we win it then it's going to be brought as a positive thing. There's only one truth but as a journalist you can look at it from both ways and you can be positive or negative about what we've done.

What we know is, we felt that this was a good way of preparing ourselves for the game for Monday, because the boys deserved a few days off. It's been a very long season for us. We think three days' lead-up towards the game on Monday is more than enough time to be physically well-prepared. If we are mentally prepared for a very difficult game against a team that can play really well, that is something that has nothing to do with us being somewhere else or over here. But that does maybe have something to do with that for us, apart from winning a game of football, there's nothing else at stake.

I don't think it would be fair to any player if you work with them for a whole season then to change your opinion on one or two games that are coming up. Our opinion has been made up over 10 to 11 months and all of them – except for Federico Chiesa – have already played longer over here at this club. I think we know quite well the quality of our players. So, the game against Brighton or the game against [Crystal] Palace is not to make up our mind or to change our mind in what we think about next season.

First of all, then you assume that we are going to bring in new players. And I've said many times already that we, as a club, are very happy with the players we've got. Part of it is our decision but in some situations players that haven't played a lot are not looking forward to another season not playing a lot. So, there's always an ongoing process and we have to make sure that we are prepared if we can strengthen the squad. This club has always done that, no matter if we have 19, 20, 21 or 22 players. If we feel we can strengthen the squad, we do so.

But it's difficult to strengthen this squad because there's a reason why we won the league – because we have so many great players. It's an ongoing process what we are talking about. I think this club has shown so many times in the past that they will make the right decisions, and we've made the right decision last season as well not to bring in a player at all – except for Federico Chiesa – and that worked out quite well or not. I think it did!

In terms of the quality he has, he would deserve more playing time at this football club or the club he's playing for, because he has the quality to play for us. But unfortunately for him, he's in competition with Mo Salah when it's about the right wing. And I think he could also play as a left winger but there's Cody Gakpo and Lucho Diaz. I don't think I'm wrong if I tell you that these three have had a great, great, great season. And for him starting one or two or maybe even three nil down because the moment he came in he was not as fit as the other players were.

That then, of course, doesn't help in the beginning and before he was as fit as the rest, the other ones did so well that there was not a lot of reason for me to change, and even to be in a squad then becomes difficult if Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota are there as well. But is he good enough to play for us? Yes, he is. I've always felt that Lucho Diaz, Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah deserved the confidence I had in them and I hardly ever changed that set-up between the three of them.

Normally, especially in this league, but in general – even in Holland – the last game is really special. You should watch it. It's about the last game and normally in this league it's also about the last game. And if you want it done and you want to go after the season then wives, girlfriends, children are like, 'Yeah, come on, I haven't seen my dad for such a long time. Let's go on holiday now with the family.' Which I can completely agree [with]. So, we were having the great position that not only we won it earlier on already, but also we've played on Sunday and then the next game is on Monday.

Like I said, even if we wouldn't have won it yet, they wouldn't have had four days [off] but they probably would have had two or three [days off] then as well. Because in the end of the season, you have to find the right balance in keeping them fit enough to play but also get them mentally fresh. That's what we've tried to do. Last week before the Arsenal game, we had a few days off as well and this week also.

I was already happy that no-one asked about it! I thought, 'OK, we can leave this behind!' Last week people talked about it to me and then, of course, we had the reaction of our fans in the stadium, which was different – positive and negative. Then all the pundits talked about it, the whole country talked about it. And I think now it's time to draw a line under that. Let's focus now on the fact that we've won the league and for us to enjoy the upcoming one-and-a-half week with that feeling and not talk and be distracted that much about Trent's situation.

Did you see me this week on social media?! No, no, even if you are celebrating over there, that doesn't mean that the whole day you don't think about something else. A larger part now is already [on next season]. Indeed, my thoughts are into next season [more] than it would have been if this game of Monday and next week against Palace would have been decisive for us to either finish top five or win the league or whatever we had to do. But now it's clear what we've done, so I think it's a normal situation that my thoughts if I'm on the couch tonight or another moment are more into next season than they would have been if it was still very important.

That's also the challenge not only for me but even more for the players for the Monday game, because maybe their thoughts are already more on playing for the national team one-and-a-half week later, where these games are probably even more important to them than the upcoming two weeks. Although [from] what people told me, Palace at home will be a very special one to look forward to. Probably that's the answer to your question. You think about it more, you have more meetings about that now than you would have had when it was even more important to win a game of football than it is now.

I think [Alexis] Mac Allister did this a few times as well, but it all depends also on the way the other team presses. The good thing if you play a team like Arsenal, which is also the difficult thing, but you know what you can expect. They have the quality and it's perfectly done by them but you know what to expect. So then sometimes you give a little bit different details to your midfielders [on] how to do the build-up than you might do in other games. I wouldn't see too much into that. It's just a small detail. I think what we've changed throughout the whole season, the general idea of playing was the same but we always tried to adapt to the way the other team wanted to press us.