'I tried to' - Arne Slot reveals what he told Liverpool at half-time against Nottingham Forest

Arne Slot admitted that Liverpool’s first-half performance against Nottingham Forest was the worst of the season.

The Reds required a 97th-minute winner from Alexis Mac Allister to earn a 1-0 win over struggling Forest at the City Ground. It was a smash-and-grab victory, with Liverpool’s display abject for the most part - especially in the opening 45 minutes.

The visitors constantly gave the ball away and were put under pressure by Forest, although it did equate to few goalscoring chances for the home side. Liverpool did improve somewhat after the break although struggled to engineer consistent openings, with Curtis Jones having the only gilt-edged opportunity which was saved until the dying embers.

Hugo Ekitike missed a header in the 89th minute, with Forest defender Ola Aina’s clearance being charged down by Mac Allister and finding the back of the net before VAR intervened for handball.

But Liverpool were not dispirited and managed to dig out another chance, with Virgil van Dijk’s saved header being latched on to by Mac Allister.

Reds head coach Slot said: The first half was really poor, the worst we've played until now I think, but the second half was much better, controlled the game much more, had our chances already earlier in the second half. And in the first half, although we were really poor, we did not concede a lot and we defended really well in our box.”

Asked what his half-time message was, Slot replied: “What I just said – that it was the worst first half we've played. But we defended our box really well and that was the reason that we were still on 0-0. Because as much as Forest were the better team and were forcing us to go back, we defended really well in our box, in my opinion. We had to defend a lot of set-pieces throughout the whole game but especially in the first half. So if we could bring back that mentality to the whole pitch, combined [with] doing a few things better on the ball and maybe not lose every ball you touch, because that was almost what happened, then you know that these players can do better.

“I tried to give them a bit of energy to say, 'They've played Thursday, a difficult away game, maybe they run out of energy and we for sure cannot have run out of energy yet, so maybe that can balance the game more or get the game in our advantage.' And I pointed out our second half against [Manchester] City as well, after a first half that's maybe not of the standards we would like to [have], we are able to play a much better second half.”