Castle on Alexander-Arnold, Salah’s comments and ‘a special week’

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has spoken to the media ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League game against Real Madrid (kick-off 20:00 GMT).

Here are the main lines from his press conference:

• Trent Alexander-Arnold will be in the match squad, but he is not available to start. Slot added: “Maybe he’ll play a few minutes, but in an ideal world he won’t and only if necessary.”

• Harvey Elliott will also be named in the squad but is unlikely to start as Slot said “he hasn’t played competitive football for a long time”.

• Diogo Jota, Alisson, Federico Chiesa and Kostas Tsimikas remain out with their respective injuries.

• About Mohamed Salah’s comments on being ‘more outside than inside’said Slot, “If I look at my lineups, Mo is more in than out. That’s the quote I can give you. I don’t think he’s distracted at all, I haven’t seen that. He’s just fully-focused on the match tomorrow.”

• More from Slot on it unsettling the team: “If you’d been at AXA (training center) today, there wasn’t one player talking about it when I was there. Players always focus on the short term and for us it Real Madrid and Manchester City.”

• He said “it’s a special week” for him and his team as they face Champions League giants Real and City, who “have dominated Europe and the league for a while now”.

• On Carlo Ancelotti’s side: “They can win in so many ways. That’s why they won this competition so many times. They can turn games and they can also take the ball away from you and dominate from the start. That’s what makes them so special.”

• He said Kylian Mbappe “has shown so many times that he is difficult to defend” against and added that “we have to be ready for him”.

• On former Reds defender Jamie Carragher’s “selfish” Salah claim: “I focus a bit more on what else he said. He said he was one of the best five players Liverpool had. I agree with him. I don’t think it distracts Mo. I think it brings out the best in him.”