Liverpool fail to heed Arne Slot warning as Reds boss makes Nottingham Forest atmosphere claim
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Liverpool failed to heed a pre-match warning from manager Arne Slot as they drew 1-1 with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Tuesday night. It was the second Premier League game in a row that the Reds dropped points after a 2-2 draw with Manchester United at Anfield in their previous outing.
They are seven points clear of Arsenal in third and six clear of Forest who sit in second. Chelsea and Manchester City also dropped points as they drew with Bournemouth and Brentford, respectively. The Gunners are in action on Wednesday as they face Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby.
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Hide AdLiverpool were lacklustre in the first half and went behind early on as Chris Wood put the home side ahead after eight minutes after the Reds had dominated the early phases. Diogo Jota’s first touch after coming on in the second half dragged Liverpool level and an inspired performance from goalkeeper Matz Sels helped the hosts pick up a point as he made a string of fine saves. Liverpool had an xG of 2.28 compared to 0.44 for Forest, highlighting the quality of the chances carved out by the Reds.
Slot’s pre-game warning not heeded
Ahead of the match, Reds boss Slot had highlighted the importance of keeping Forest at bay early on as he did not want to give the home crowd anything to shout about - something Liverpool failed to do.
Ahead of the game, Slot said: “I think the opening of a game is always very important, especially if you play an away game. Because I assume, and I think I'm 100 per cent right, that the atmosphere in the stadium will be fired up tomorrow before the game and definitely from the start. So, that makes it even more important to don't get that going even more. They are a team that hardly concedes goals and there's also a reason for it: they don't take a risk in build-up. So, mostly when they lose a ball, they have got many players behind the ball. And if they do have to defend, I see 11 players that work really hard to prevent the other team from scoring.
“That is something we have in common with Forest and that's probably the reason why we conceded less or just as much. That's probably the main reason why these teams don't concede a lot. And then they have centre-backs that can defend the box really well, so if you bring a lot of crosses in it's not easy to score against them. We've experienced this at Anfield. I looked back at the game and they didn't steal anything because we hardly created a chance. They deserved to win because they made us play a poor game and they were doing really well in that game. We know it's going to be tough, not only because we faced them a few months ago but also we all see how special of a season it is for them.”
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Hide AdJota wanted all three points
After the game, goal-scorer Jota told Liverpool’s club website: “Obviously I love to score goals. I scored with my first touch today and obviously that gave the team a bit of momentum. I had two more chances, I think I could have given us the three points. Unfortunately, I couldn’t, and [it was] game on. It’s a long way [still to go], in the Premier League every ground you go, even at home, it’s always hard. It’s one more point but obviously we wanted the three.”
Jota scored with his first touch as he headed home from Kostas Tsimikas’ corner. The goal came immediately after Slot had introduced both players to the game. Jota added: “I actually said to him [Tsimikas], we were watching the cup goal from two or three years ago where he passed it to me, and we were on the touchline there and I was just saying, ‘Let’s do it now, recreate your assist, take the corner.’ It was a goal, it was one of those occasions where everything went right. But like I said, I’m not happy because I think we could have won.”
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