Arne Slot press conference: Crystal Palace challenge, Woodman faith, attackers and more

Slot spoke to reporters at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning to preview the fourth meeting between the clubs this season (Saturday, 3pm BST).

Having provided an injury update and confirmed Hugo Ekitike underwent successful surgery, read on for some more topics from the briefing.

On being in a good position to secure Champions League qualification for next season...

That is what results recently have done to us. I think in the last eight games we've picked up 16 points, and it doesn't always feel like that because in between we had to play Paris Saint-Germain, Man City. But our recent league form is acceptable.

On his faith in Freddie Woodman if Alisson Becker is unable to play against Palace...

For a reason, we've signed an experienced third goalkeeper. Usually you don't need him that much but there could be situations if one is injured and the other one gets a suspension – that usually makes more sense than expecting two goalkeepers to be injured. Then it's needed to have a third goalkeeper with experience and that's why we were happy that we could pick him up on a free transfer this summer, apart from him being a good goalkeeper – which he's shown.

I think when he was young he won the Euros with the U17s and I think with the U20s he won the World Cup. Then he made himself a career at Newcastle, at Preston North End and has the experience to play even at Premier League but definitely at Championship level. And apart from that, he's a very good man and he's very liked in the dressing room, and I think that's also a role that's important for the third goalkeeper if he's not playing. If he's playing, it's more important that he has a good performance than that his teammates like him. And that's why I think he's ready for it, but it will always be helpful if the fans are there to support him tomorrow.

On what makes Palace such a 'difficult' opponent...

As always, what makes it difficult are the players you face. I think they have a good team. They already had a good team two or three years ago. From that team, [Marc] Guehi is now at [Manchester] City, [Eberechi] Eze, [Michael] Olise, who's at Bayern Munich [and] making a career for himself now. And, of course, they have a very good manager, who's able to bring a lot of discipline in that team and it is really, really, really hard to create chances against them.

I've watched, with my staff, quite a lot of games – as we always do – of these teams but probably now a bit more to find ways of creating chances against them. It doesn't matter which game but you're watching 60 minutes of football and you haven't seen the other team creating a chance yet against them. And then on the other end they are very direct in their playing style with good attackers going quite fast in behind your last line. So, I think they have conceded, after Arsenal, the least goals, so that tells you a lot and there's a reason for that because they hardly concede a chance.

On Mohamed Salah's form...

I think, first of all, it's really important for us that we have attackers that score goals because if you look at the success of last season, we had multiple attackers that scored a lot of goals. And this season now you can just look at numbers and we are not scoring as many as we did last season. I think there's a little drop-off maybe also in chance creation, not as much as the goalscoring you would expect. So there's a little drop-off in chance creation but not as much that we don't score so many goals anymore.

With Mo, I've said it many times but that probably also goes for the other ones, there's always parts in the season where the ball just falls to you and you don't have to do anything difficult and score. And in other moments, you do so much yourself to try to create the chance and it's just actually never working or the goalkeeper makes incredible saves. But normally – and that happens now with Mo – things go back to normal. And normal for Mo in his Liverpool career is that he's scoring goals.

On the fitness of Alexander Isak and whether participation at the World Cup with Sweden will help or hinder him...

It won't hinder him. What would be the best scenario for him is not 100 per cent left or right, so I cannot say this would have been better than that one. But a very good pre-season with us, six or seven weeks, would have been a very good lead-up to a season as well. If he has a good World Cup where he plays a lot of games, that would be helpful. The temperature is probably quite high in America, so I don't know what the tempo of the games is; usually the tempo of games when they play for their countries is lower than Premier League or Champions League standards.

But I'm happy he's back. What is realistic, where he is now? You tell me. I think we can all understand that if a player missed out four months or five months of training before he came to us, then we build him up and the moment that he was ready he got injured again, missing out four months again and now he's two weeks with us... that's a lot of months without training time with the team. In the middle of a season where everyone is top and top and top fit, that's not the easiest part to come back, but I think we are seeing progress in the games he's played – Paris Saint-Germain and now this one [Everton]. We're hoping that progress can continue and how fast he's then at his best level, I don't know that. I cannot look at the future, but I'm hoping – for us and for himself – very soon.

On Armin Pecsi's development...

He was already on the bench last week. Because we were short on players, we added Armin to the bench as well because he was doing the warm-up so there was a spot available so he could be the man. Of course he's on the bench tomorrow. We think we signed a very talented goalkeeper and he already played minutes at the highest level, I think in Hungary, wasn't it? So now he's played multiple games with the U21s and, of course, he gets better and better because if you are every day on the pitch doing finishing drills with the attackers we are having, you are becoming a better goalkeeper. Still very young, still progress to be made, but that's completely normal. But we think we've signed a very talented and good goalkeeper that eventually could definitely play for us.

On whether Pecsi is at the level required to play Premier League football...

If you ask me, do I see him at the level of Alisson? My answer is no, but that's not criticism at all. Let's touch wood, but it would fit this season completely if something would happen with Freddie tomorrow, then if Armin then comes in, I'm completely comfortable. He's very comfortable on the ball, has a very good instinct and he reads the game really well, so he knows where the shot would go to and that I like a lot. If he needs to come on, if Alisson is not ready to play tomorrow and Freddie needs to start and something might happen, I'm completely comfortable bringing him in.

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