Arne Slot has never kept his disdain for losing to Nottingham Forest at Anfield a secret, but he has admitted their form this season means it is now not “such a shock result.”
It has been hard to keep track of how many times Slot has willingly brought up the 1-0 defeat his side suffered at the hands of Forest in September, it has definitely kept him up at night.
At the time the Dutchman could not hide his disappointment after losing to a team that “normally is not ending up in the top 10,” but so far this season he has been proved wrong.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s side sit six points behind Liverpool in third, behind Arsenal only on goal difference, and have won each of their last seven games, conceding just three goals.
With all that in mind, Slot can now admit that the result in hindsight was perhaps not the “shock result” he first thought it was.
Speaking in Monday’s press conference, he said: “I think they already showed in retrospect how good of a team they are. Leading up to that game I think they had two draws and one win.
“In general, I think every time Liverpool loses a home game it is something we don’t expect.
“I think in that moment of time I also saw a stat that Virgil played 100 home games for Liverpool and only lost once, so for us to lose on that day was, for me, hard to take, as you probably experienced.
“Now looking back at it and seeing where they are in the league, it’s not such a shock result as I thought it was back then.
“They had a very good game plan, changed the wingers that normally played and brought them in at the end and they made the difference.
“Although, I expect their wingers that have done so well to be in the starting eleven tomorrow – it is something that he (Nuno) changed back then and that worked really well for them during that game.”
Slot has watched the defeat back as he “wanted to see what we did back then in terms of tactics and what we could do now,” and noted how he is eager not to encourage the City Ground crowd on Tuesday.
The Dutchman was very complimentary of Nuno’s men as he spoke to reporters, with Forest “definitely” in competition at the top of the Premier League table.
“I always said you can judge the table best halfway through the season and that moment is there now,” Slot added. “Forest is up there with us, Arsenal, Chelsea, City and all the others.
“They definitely are a team that’s in competition with us and the other teams, they deserved to be treated like this.
“If you look at the way they play and their results, it’s going to be a very difficult challenge tomorrow to get a result.”
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