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Arne Slot gave answer we all wanted at Liverpool press conference

-Credit:John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
-Credit:John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images


It was the unspoken topic that lingered in the chilly air around the AXA Training Centre. But Arne Slot delivered the answer everyone wanted regardless.

“What do I know about Accrington Stanley?" pondered the Liverpool boss. "Not that much because I am only here for half-a-year but I do know about the milk advert. Probably everyone knows this!"

The famous commercial from the 1980s - when two young Reds feared failure to drink milk would result in them being only good enough to play for the Lancashire side - returned to public consciousness when the draw for the FA Cup third round paired the two clubs at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime.

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The low turnout at Kirkby on Friday perhaps underlines the fixture is not high on the list of priorities, with Liverpool now ensconced in a busy January which includes a League Cup semi-final, the end of the first Champions League opening stage and key Premier League games.

For League Two strugglers Accrington, though, it is a huge occasion and only their second game against the Reds having been beaten 2-0 at this stage of the FA Cup at Anfield in 1956. And Slot is wary of underestimating the desire of the opponents.

"After the draw there was a video about an (Accrington) player who was so happy he was going to play at Anfield, so these kind of things I know," added Slot. "I know people from this area also play for the club. And of course I know a lot about the team and today I will know even more about because we are going to dive into it even more.

“I think every team that plays against us it is a special occasion, but especially for a lower league team. They will be all up for it, they have looked forward to this game for many weeks, probably nine out of 10 players are fit, no-one is suspended and the challenge is always to bring the best out of ourselves.

"Everybody could understand if you go to a Champions League final everyone is completely hyped up and ready and tomorrow, that will feel like it is the Champions League final so we have to be aware of that. Nine out of 10 times the first 25 minutes, half-hour is the most difficult part of the game as they will be very intense and it is up to us to be ready for them wanting to play the best game of their lives and we have to as well."

Slot batted away questions on transfers and didn't offer many clues regards personnel for Saturday's game, although Liverpool are expected to make wholesale changes for the match. But the Reds boss admitted being strong favourites for a cup tie is a new experience for him as a manager.

“I mostly played at a team that was not as good as the one we faced – that's not completely true but for large parts of my career that was true – and my experience as a manager I don't know," he said.

"When I was at Feyenoord I always said I was unlucky with the draw as almost every time we had a draw we had the most difficult one we could get and that means you played a team that plays in the same league where other teams sometimes played an amateur club, which can sometimes be the situation.

"I don't remember playing against a very low league club in my managerial career in Holland, bit I was only a manager there for three or four years to that has something to do with it as well."