Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admits his first defeat – a shock 1-0 dwelling loss to Nottingham Forest – is “a giant setback.”
After three victories with out conceding his facet laboured for 72 minutes earlier than Callum Hudson-Odoi’s strike secured the guests’ first win at Anfield since 1969.
“It’s a huge setback. In the event you lose a house recreation that’s at all times a setback,” Slot mentioned.
“Usually this workforce isn’t ending up in prime 10, so when you lose a recreation towards them that’s a giant disappointment, though they had been organised and structured very well at the moment.
“The one factor we had affect on was ball possession as a result of they performed lots of lengthy balls, so when you then take the ball again it’s essential go previous 11 gamers.
“We had lots of ball possession however solely managed to create three or 4 fairly good probabilities. That’s by far not sufficient.
“In case you have a lot possession and play a lot of their half we have to be significantly better, we misplaced the ball so many occasions in easy conditions.
“That’s the primary story from the sport – ball possession was not ok.”
This was Slot’s first match after a global break and it appeared to point out as passes went astray with alarming regularity, the connections constructed up beforehand turning into severed fairly shortly.
Liverpool had 10 gamers who performed the total 90 minutes in each video games for his or her worldwide groups and the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz travelled again from South America.
Nevertheless, that’s not out of the peculiar and Slot didn’t look to seek out excuses.
“It’s at all times tough, however I don’t suppose it had something to do with it,” he added.
“Gamers got here again sturdy and I noticed at the moment a workforce that wished to combat till the top. That wasn’t to do with vitality.
“In the event you take a look at the objectives we scored till now, we scored fairly a number of from transition moments from successful the ball again, however the different workforce (Forest) performed over our press lots with lots of lengthy balls.
“It wasn’t ok at the moment as a result of too many particular person performances in ball possession had been lower than the requirements that I’m used to from these gamers.”
Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo was understandably delighted with the outcome, particularly because the membership had taken simply 5 factors from their earlier 25 visits to Anfield.
“Lots of our followers at the moment within the stadium weren’t even born (the final time they gained) so that claims how laborious it’s,” he mentioned.
“I’m very glad and happy with the work of the gamers, they labored very laborious.
“Total, we knew how laborious the sport was going to be. It’s all about taking your probabilities.”
Liverpool 0-1 Forest
