“They weren’t ready”: Slot blamed for Forest performance, his explanation raises worrying pattern

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Arne Slot watched from the sidelines in frustration, but much of the blame for Liverpool’s performance lies with the manager. But really, Liverpool had no right to win the game.

Not for the first time, Liverpool, with their vastly more expensive squad, looked like the lesser team. “There’s no question Arne Slot is a huge part of the problem in this first half,” Nicol said on ESPN FC “That’s generally a quiet dressing room that starts a game like that and that’s down to the manager to smell it, see it and do something about it because, clearly, they weren’t ready for the game.” Slot reveals half-time message to underperforming Liverpool players Slot, at least, admitted after the match that Liverpool’s first half display was the worst of the season.

“[I told them at half-time] that it was the worst first half that we’ve played,” Slot said during his post-match press conference. “I tried to give them a bit of energy to say, ‘Yeah, they’ve played Thursday, difficult away game, maybe they run out of energy, and we, for sure, cannot have run out of energy yet’.” Not for the first time, Slot has failed to adequately address issues in Liverpool’s gameplay.