Hungary boss Marco Rossi has played down suggestions of a rift with Liverpool head coach Arne Slot after Dominik Szoboszlai and Milos Kerkez featured for most of Saturday’s friendly win over Slovenia.
Slot had urged international managers to rest his Liverpool players where possible during the current break, with Szoboszlai and Kerkez among his most important figures.
Speaking after last weekend’s defeat to Brighton, the Reds boss said: “Let’s hope that their national team coaches do understand that at Liverpool, a lot of players have played a lot of minutes.”
When those comments were put to Rossi ahead of Hungary’s friendlies against Slovenia and Greece, the national team boss insisted Slot should not “interfere” with his plans.
“I have never spoken to Arne Slot personally,” he said. “Accordingly, I have never had a say in when the Liverpool head coach, for example, plays Dominik Szoboszlai as a defender.
“However, I would also expect him not to interfere in my work either.”
Those comments were interpreted by some as a dig at the Reds boss, but following Saturday’s 1-0 win over Slovenia in Budapest — in which Kerkez played 76 minutes and Szoboszlai 87 — Rossi dismissed claims that he was attempting to spark a feud with Slot.
“I’ve read nonsense in the press. You can’t imagine that I would be so arrogant, conceited and stupid as to compare myself to a coach who manages a team in the Premier League,” said Rossi.
“I am not comparable to the Liverpool manager, I had no intention of that happening at all.
“Arne Slot said he hoped his players wouldn’t play two games. I saved Dominik Szoboszlai ten minutes and Milos Kerkez twenty.
“Slot is a coach of a top club. He deserves maximum respect. I am nobody. But since I am the head coach of the Hungarian national team, I think the Hungarian national team also deserves respect, at least because of its past. There is no dispute between us.”
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