ReactionVirgil van Dijk: We should have won it - but we'll keep going

The Reds captain rued the fact his side could not complete a turnaround in Tuesday night’s absorbing Premier League fixture at the City Ground.

The visitors fell behind inside the opening eight minutes as Chris Wood found space and guided a low finish beyond Alisson Becker.

But Arne Slot’s men cranked up the pressure as the game continued and equalised at the three-quarter mark when Diogo Jota headed home from close range.

There were chances to win it, too, only for Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels to foil Liverpool on multiple occasions and force a share of the points.

• Read our match report from the City Ground

Post-match, Van Dijk gave his verdict on the game to Liverpoolfc.com. Read a summary below…

On whether he felt Liverpool should have got all three points…

Yeah, it should have been, especially based on the second-half performance. I think we created many chances, especially against a team that don’t concede many chances. But it’s football – should have been, could have been, it doesn’t work like that. They worked their socks off as well and that’s what they have been doing, so big credit to them too. But looking at my own team, I think we should have done better with finishing our opportunities.

On whether it felt like a similar encounter to the one against Forest at Anfield in September…

Obviously [in] the game at Anfield they played with four central midfielders on one line in front of their defence. It’s a bit different, more hoping on the counter-attack, and that’s what they did very well. Today obviously they played their front four they have been doing throughout the whole season and been successful with as well. The game plan we had, we did it well, I think only the goal that we conceded you lose an important battle when you are open and obviously they punish you immediately. Apart from that I don’t think we gave much away, but we created many [chances] and we should have done better.

On there being a balance between throwing players forward and the danger of being caught on the counter-attack…

In the first half it shouldn’t be the case and I don’t think it was that much the case, that’s why I said we didn’t give chances away. Obviously we were 1-0 down and that’s the disappointing part, but apart from that we did outstanding. We always made sure our defence was in order and they couldn’t get into their strengths. Obviously at times they might come into a position they want to be, but it’s all about sprinting back and defending together. And I think that’s what we did. We tried everything we had, the only thing that was missing was the final finish to kill off the game.

• Arne Slot press conference: The head coach's verdict on Forest 1-1 Liverpool

On the brilliant contributions off the bench from Jota and Kostas Tsimikas…

[It’s important] from everyone but obviously it’s important for players that come on to make an immediate impact, and this was very immediate of course. [Jota] came in with a lot of energy, a lot of drive and hunger and obviously he had opportunities to score also the winner. Kostas with an amazing corner to set him up. We need everyone in this race and we keep going.