ReactionArne Slot press conference: The head coach's verdict on Forest 1-1 Liverpool
Arne Slot was effusive in his praise of Liverpool's performance and rued the fact it was not rewarded with three points as Nottingham Forest claimed a 1-1 draw at the City Ground.
Diogo Jota and Kostas Tsimikas combined to instant effect after coming off the bench midway through the second half as the left-back’s first touch, an inswinging corner, was nodded home by Jota with his.
That goal finally cancelled out Chris Wood’s eighth-minute opener and the Reds dominated the closing stages as they sought a winner.
However, Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels made several superb saves, while Mohamed Salah also saw a shot cleared off the line, to deny the Premier League leaders victory.
Slot’s team now sit six points above second-placed Forest and retain a game in hand over Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Read the Liverpool head coach’s reaction from his post-match press conference below.
On whether he’s ever made a substitution that’s had as immediate an impact as tonight before...
No, I don’t think so. I can’t remember it. Although I don’t feel any pride in the substitution because you make a substitution because you have a certain game plan for why you do this. In this situation, we brought an attacker in for a defender just to play even more attacking football than we already did because we needed a goal - or goals. Then scoring from set-pieces was not something I had in my mind when I brought the two of them in, but of course Jota can score a goal and Kostas has a good set-piece.
On his overall take on the game...
I couldn’t have asked for more today. I think most people talk about the second half - that they are really positive about the second half. If you ask me, I am also more positive about the second half than the first half, but if you play at this ground against this team, who are in such good form, hardly concedes a chance in every single game - and I have watched many of them back... so many counter-attack threats, almost every game they have counter-attack after counter-attack after counter-attack. We conceded only one counter-attack here today in 98 minutes of football of total domination. Unfortunately for us, that ball immediately went in.
Then in the second half, our ball possession also led to a lot of chances. You have to give credit, again, to Nottingham because the way they defend, they throw themselves in front of shots, in front of every cross and then there is a goalkeeper that has an outstanding season this year and tonight again. Being 1-0 down over here and it’s so hard to score against this team, it’s not what we wanted - we want to have three points, but in the end what I want, what the fans should want and what the players should want is that they give it all they [have] got during every single game they play. That is what they did today, combined with outstanding football in the second half.
On whether tonight highlighted any areas he’d like to strengthen in the transfer window...
I think you saw today again that I can still strengthen the team or impact the game with the substitutes I have on the bench. Not for the first time this season, these players have helped us, that I could bring in. If you look at today, like I said, I couldn’t have asked for more. I said to them at half-time don’t get frustrated, you will not get many chances, probably the game is going to be slow, but just keep focusing on what you have to do and hopefully you will get two or three chances and let’s try to score from that. I was completely wrong because they created chance after chance after chance.
On how difficult Forest are to play against and whether their style is ‘unique’…
I wouldn’t say unique, but the playing style suits the players really well and I think this is what is the job of every manager: to try to find a playing style that suits your players. What makes it difficult, and we faced it not only against them but we faced it a bit against [Manchester] United as well, is they play the long ball and they have some very good players for this. So, first of all you have to make sure you win the first ball and then the second or the third ball because they play the ball off Wood, who is a very strong target man, and then they have got these quick forwards that can hurt you as well.
But then the moment you win the second or the third ball there are 11 players behind the ball and it is so difficult to score against teams that play in a low block; it’s so difficult to create chances against teams like that. And yeah, that’s why for us it was such a disappointment that we went 1-0 down because then they could even play their style even better, which made it a difficult evening for us because apart from the [Forest] players that I have to give compliments, I have to give the fans compliments as well because they were really there for the home team and tried to influence the game as much as they could. They were a big help for Forest tonight.
On whether he considers Forest to be title contenders…
I said already before the game that after 20 games you can judge the table much better than in the first five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 games and if you are right up there with us and the other teams… and I don’t think they are here because of luck. It is for every team very hard and difficult to play against them. They’ve already had a few difficult away games, with United away, [Manchester] City away, with Arsenal away, us away, playing us already twice. So, that shows you that they are a team that can compete for the top end of the league table. I also think, but you have to tell me if I am right, that they have had most of their players available until now for the whole season so I see almost the same line-up, and that is a quality for the coaching staff that they have as well. But if they can keep bringing the same players on the pitch I see no reason for them to drop a lot of points.
On whether Jota is now back in rhythm and making a big impact after his injury lay-off…
Yes, he made a big impact already before when he came in against Fulham but then after that game he had a bit of a setback and then the games he came in afterwards I also felt he needed a bit more time to get into his rhythm. That’s not only with him, I see that with other players as well that were out for a few weeks or a few months, it is difficult to get this intensity going in these Premier League games immediately. And it was very pleasing to see that today he might even have been better than against Fulham when he came in. He had a big impact, he was the one, apart from Mo [Salah], that had a few chances to score our second goal.
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