What Arne Slot told Liverpool dressing room at half-time that ended up being 'completely wrong'

Arne Slot admitted that his Liverpool half-time team talk ended up being ‘completely wrong’ as he did not expect his troops to create so many chances against Nottingham Forest.

The Reds battled from behind to earn a 1-1 draw against their Premier League title rivals. Leaders Liverpool went into the City Ground encounter six points clear of third-placed Forest. But they hit a setback when Chris Wood scored for the home side in the eighth minute and the visitors did not register a shot on target in the first half.

However, Liverpool improved after the break and were level in the 65th minute when Diogo Jota headed home fellow substitute Kostas Tsimikas’ corner only 22 seconds after the pair were introduced. Slot’s troops conjured several more opportunities, with Jota, Cody Gakpo and Mo Salah denied by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels while the latter had a shocked cleared off the line.

Forest underlined why they are now second in the table for a reason. They displayed their defensive strengths and Liverpool were the first team to score against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side in six matches.

When trailing at the interval, Slot confessed he told his troops to be patient and only a handful of openings may fall their way - but that proved to be incorrect. The Liverpool head coach said: “I think you saw today again that I can still strengthen the team or impact the game with the substitutes I have on the bench. Not for the first time this season, these players have helped us, that I could bring in. If you look at today, like I said, I couldn't have asked for more.

“I said to them at half-time don’t get frustrated, you will not get many chances, probably the game is going to be slow, but just keep focusing on what you have to do and hopefully you will get two or three chances and let’s try to score from that. I was completely wrong because they created chance after chance after chance.”

Forest remain six points behind Liverpool in Premier League, albeit having played one game more. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side are this season’s surprise package and Slot believes they are contenders for the top-flight crown. The Anfield supremo added: “I said already before the game that after 20 games you can judge the table much better than in the first five, six, seven, eight, nine or 10 games and if you are right up there with us and the other teams… and I don’t think they are here because of luck. It is for every team very hard and difficult to play against them.

“They’ve already had a few difficult away games, with United away, [Manchester] City away, with Arsenal away, us away, playing us already twice. So, that shows you that they are a team that can compete for the top end of the league table. I also think, but you have to tell me if I am right, that they have had most of their players available until now for the whole season so I see almost the same line-up, and that is a quality for the coaching staff that they have as well. But if they can keep bringing the same players on the pitch I see no reason for them to drop a lot of points.”