Every word Arne Slot just said on Liverpool title expectations, Aston Villa and Curtis Jones' form

Arne Slot says he is making no efforts to manage the expectations of his players or fans after

The Reds sit top of the Premier League and Champions League tables, losing just once this season. Slot's team was to the campaign after the departure of Jurgen Klopp, but instead, they have emerged as contenders for silverware.

Slot says he is doing nothing to keep his players grounded ahead of trusting them as professionals to remain focused. Nor does Slot want supporters to keep claim, hailing the impact of the atmosphere electric atmosphere for the wins over Brighton & Hove Albion and Bayer Leverkusen in recent days.

Slot discussed numerous topics at his pregame press conference, including Here is every word from the head coach's chat with reporters at the AXA Training Center...

On if he is surprised by fast start: "I don't think surprised is the right word to use because I knew the quality of our team. But quality is one thing, to be consistent is a second thing and I'm not surprised in this because the moment I started working with them, I saw how much energy they put in on a daily basis.

"I think that is the reason why you can be consistent. If you do the work every day, you can be consistent and sometimes a bit of luck comes with that as well. Most of our results were deserved but I think some of them were a close call and then you may have a bit of luck as well.

"But in general, I'm not surprised because of the quality I already thought was in the team and when I started working with them I also saw how much effort they put in to get these results.

On managing expectations in the squad: "I'm not trying to manage expectations with the squad because we don't talk about expectations. Well, we do talk about expectations and the only expectations I have is that they put the same effort in on a daily basis like they have done for the past four or five months and probably for the past six or seven years.

"That is the only expectation that there is. That they work every day as hard as they can to get our habits that we want to see on the pitch in the best possible way, and with that normally results come as well. But I'm not asking them to win every game. I'm hoping they do, but I am asking for them to put the effort in on a daily basis and that's the only thing we focus on.

"I think first of all after Saturday, the players think about the national team and when they come back we focus on the games we were just talking about [against Real Madrid and Manchester City].

On Curtis Jones' form: "With Curtis, maybe it's not me who did it because he became a father and I had nothing to do with that. You never know if that plays a part or not, but since the moment he became a father, he started to put in great performances and he already did this in the first weeks we worked together in preseason.

"I was like 'Phwoar, quality player,' but then his performances dropped a bit. But like I said, he became a father and he's outstanding again. It might have a bit to do with that, but in general I think it has to do with how the team plays because every player that comes in has a good performance and that probably tells you a lot about the quality of the team and how they play together. As a result of that, individual performances are good as well.

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On managing fans' expectations: "I always feel that what the outside world is talking about, that is not always what is being talked about at the training ground. We are there to do our work and become a better player on a daily basis, or to keep having the same level.

"We are not inside this building – OK, the screens are on and we see all the time this news coming along and never on the news does it say 'Liverpool is doing great, Liverpool is doing great,' so we are just here to do our work.

"It is not the first time this club is where it is at the moment. I think for most of these players, it's a normal situation and they don't get carried away by us being top of the league at the moment because they know how small the margins are when it comes to our results and also how small the margins are when you look at the amount of points we are ahead of the other teams.

"[For fans], if the end result is them being excited to bring the atmosphere they brought in the second half against Brighton and the whole game against Leverkusen, I hope they will keep being excited for as long as they possibly can be because that atmosphere helped us in both games a lot."

On Curtis Jones' ability: "He has a lot of qualities on the ball. When he has the ball, he's never afraid to do something special with it. Sometimes, that led to situations where, in my opinion, he touched the ball a bit too much because sometimes he was a bit too overconfident.

"But confidence is an important tool and that is what he has. He combines that with an incredibly hard work rate and we can trust him in defense as well. You saw how well he played against Cole Palmer, so he is quite complete and for him now, it's all about consistency.

"If you're a quality player – and I think they are all quality players – to have a good performance once in a while, that is not a big accomplishment. The best players in the world show up every three days and if he wants to continue progressing, that's what he needs to show now. Every three days [he needs to be] the player her has been for us in the past few weeks."

On Andy Robertson and Kostas Tsimikas: "I think my lineups tell you what I think about this. I think we have two very good full-backs and we play many, many, many games. I think both of them need their games because it's also a position where a lot of effort is being asked.

"So if you look at the players who play most games, most of them are center-backs and they don't run the most if you compare that to full-backs or to midfielders or to wingers. There are multiple reasons why our full-backs or our wingers are sometimes rotated, but it definitely also has to do with the quality of the players and the difference in quality of these players.

"For me, I have two very good left full-backs. Andy has started a lot, Kostas has started a few times. Let's see who starts on Saturday."

On having an input Alexander-Arnold, Salah and Van Dijk contract talks: "It would be strange if I have no input, although I am a head coach now and it is sometimes convenient to say 'I'm a head coach now, I'm no longer the manager so talk about contract situations with someone else'.

"In general, contract situations are talked about by the people who should talk about it. I am one of them, but I should not talk about this in public. I do talk about this with Richard [Hughes] and that is the place we should talk about it, not in front of a microphone with you guys."

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On the attacking setup of the team: "It also depends on the availability of the players, so when we had Darwin and Diogo available, we always played one of those two. In the moment, Diogo was not available and, in my opinion, because we played so many games and Darwin didn't play in the first games, it was too much for him so that's why we started to come up with other ideas.

"To be honest, I liked especially the idea. I think every Liverpool supporter did with [Diaz] scoring three goals, two as a nine and one as a winger, so that's always interesting to see. [Diaz] is also a very good left winger. At this moment, we've got four attackers available for three positions so we could come up with another idea again, but if Diogo comes back and Darwin is back, then we've got two No. 9s available again.

"In the beginning of the season, I always chose one of these two, but like I said, [Diaz] did very well and it was even for me maybe a bit of a surprise to see how well he did. Of course, I played him there for a reason and expected him to do good, but he did so well that it was even a surprise for me."

On Jota's injury return: "The first weeks after the international break, we expect him back. I always say in Holland there is privacy about [what the injury is] and I don't know how it is over here, but like I said he will be back one or two weeks after the international break."

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On planning for Aston Villa: "If you ask me now, I would say it's not that difficult because Unai Emery has played in similar style for years now at Aston Villa. It's almost always the same formation but it sometimes depends on a player that can have different characteristics.

"But his style of play, his idea about football has been the same always. Saying this, that also was the situation with Xabi Alonso who we studied for I don't know how many games but never once did he come up with the idea of [Victor] Boniface as a left winger and playing without a No. 9. That he hasn't done at all before we played them, but maybe that is also a compliment.

"Most managers feel we have a very good team and they feel they have to change their gameplan. Not their playing style, but their gameplan a bit. If you ask me now if I expect Unai to change a lot, I would not expect that because he never did this when he played City and Liverpool in the past few years.

"But in terms of personnel, he can change a bit. He has different options in the full-backs and different options in the wings, but it's always been a 4-4-2 that he has been playing for many years now.

On Luis Diaz's form: "We all see that he has better numbers than he did last season. I have no clue why that is. The only thing I can come up with is the team provides a lot of chances for these players. If Diogo is playing, he scores. If Darwin is playing, he scores. If [Diaz] is playing, he scores.

"That tells me that the team is providing goals for these great individuals and these players all have the qualities. That's why they play for Liverpool. If they are in promising situations, they can score a goal and that's what I make of it, but it's difficult for me to compare it with last season. I can only say what I see this season."