Arne Slot's 'big disappointment' claim speaks volumes after 1st Liverpool defeat (original) (raw)

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot suffered his first defeat as Kop boss on Saturday, when the Reds were beaten 1-0 at Anfield by Nottingham Forest, in a smart smash-and-grab raid from Nuno Espirito Santo's men

A big surprise at Anfield for Arne Slot on Saturday

Arne Slot's honeymoon period is over after Callum Hudson-Odoi's goal stunned Liverpool.

It brought a juddering halt to Liverpool’s 100 per cent start under Slot, who admitted too many of his players were not up to speed. Victory was Nottingham Forest's first win at Anfield since 1969 with Slot, who replaced Jurgen Klopp in the summer, left frustrated.

“It is a big setback,” Slot said. "If you lose a home game that’s always a setback. Normally this team isn’t ending up in top 10, so if you lose a game against them that’s a big disappointment, although they were organised and structured really well today.

“It wasn’t good enough today because too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards I’m used to from these players. They played a lot of long balls, so if you then take the ball back you need to go past 11 players. We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three or four quite good chances. That’s by far not enough."

Liverpool had 10 players who played the full 90 minutes in both games for their international teams and the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Luis Diaz travelled back from South America. But Slot insisted that's not an excuse, despite seeing his team concede a Premier League goal for the first time.

“It’s always difficult, but I don’t think it had anything to do with it,” Slot added. “Players came back strong and I saw today a team that wanted to fight until the end. That wasn’t to do with energy.

“If you look at the goals we scored until now, we scored quite a few from transition moments from winning the ball back, but the other team (Forest) played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls.

“It wasn’t good enough today because too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards that I’m used to from these players.”

Arne Slot watches on during Liverpool vs Nottingham Forest (

Image:

Getty Images)

Nuno Espirito Santo smiled stating many of his club’s fans weren’t born the last time Nottingham Forest won a league game at Anfield. It was also the Portuguese’s first ever victory against Liverpool at the eighth time of asking.

Nuno admitted: “I’m very happy. Many of our fans today in the stadium they weren’t even born (the last league win here). So that says how hard it is. I am proud of the work of the players.

“We are trying to build a squad. The only way to achieve anything here is if you are organised and take your chances.”

Hudson-Odoi, who came off the bench to fire in the winner, said: “Everyone’s morale is up. We are confident going into every game. I didn’t start but I wasn’t angry or disappointed. I am buzzing. We are all buzzing.”

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