On the quality of Alexander-Arnold’s goal…

I can talk about this for hours! Incredible. I think the biggest compliment Trent could have given was everyone’s reaction after the (Manchester) United game. Every gamer in the world, except perhaps a few, has bad games and that is completely normal. But once Trent has a bad game, everyone has an opinion about him. Maybe – maybe – this has to do with the contract situation, I don’t know if it wouldn’t have been the case if everyone had reacted the same way. The biggest compliment you can get when you have such a great first half of the season and don’t play a good game against United – that was clear to me, the fans, you and all the analysts who watched the game – (is that) many were pretty hard on him, and maybe that’s the biggest compliment you can get.

Whether he chose Alexander-Arnold to give him confidence…

While I think that’s important, that wasn’t the reason for playing him. The reason for using him was that Conor Bradley was coming back from a hamstring injury and he played his first minutes against Tottenham Hotspur two days ago. I think it’s a bit unknown to everyone what our flight was that night, so we couldn’t land here in Liverpool and had to go to Birmingham. We came home very, very late and for me it was too big a risk to play against a player who had a hamstring problem five, six, seven, eight weeks ago, two days after the game against Tottenham.

Then Trent is the only full-back available and because of his commitment I think it was good for him to play in our own stadium again and feel the welcome of the fans again. That was fantastic when we played against Tottenham and it was special for him again today. This will only help him and us, because if you want to do special things during the season, we have to do it together. Not just the players, not just the players with the coach, but definitely the players with the fans.

About Danns and whether he could be loaned out in January…

To be honest, I don’t know the last thing (a loan move) at the moment. What I like most about him – and most Academy players – is the mentality they have. So that’s a big compliment for him and definitely a big compliment for our youth academy too because when you’re a young player and you get into the first team, sometimes you’re used in a way that you maybe don’t expect (in training ). Although it’s common in football, then you play against the other team, who sometimes have to mimic the team we’re playing here, so sometimes you’re in a different position.

He is a striker, but if we play 11 against 11 and I decide to play (Diogo) Jota and on the other side Darwin (Nunez) plays as a nine, he has to play as an 11 or as a six or in another position we need him. But like the other Academy players, he will always give everything he can. James McConnell is also a perfect example of this. If that is your mentality, you can definitely make the most of your potential. This is what will happen to him. What the potential is, it will probably take some time to find out if he will end up starting for us, but given his mentality he will have a very good career. I’m very sure of that.