**Liverpool were fortunate to emerge from the City Ground with a 1-0 after being dominated by Nottingham Forest for around 70 minutes of the game.**
The first half was particularly poor. Forest midfielders Elliot Anderson and Ibrahim Sangare were fantastic, playing through the disjointed Liverpool midfield with ease.
It largely had to do with Dominik Szoboszlai playing out of position at right back, but the credit belongs with the Forest players and new manager Vitor Pereira.
Arne Slot watched from the sidelines in frustration, but much of the blame for Liverpool’s performance lies with the manager. For the umpteenth time this season, his team was lacklustre in the opening exchanges.
These slow starts make it inevitable that Liverpool will struggle for the rest of the game. Instead of taking ahold of the game from the beginning, they are forced to attempt to re-write the script.
Alexis Mac Allister’s late winner was a boon. But really, Liverpool had no right to win the game. As their Premier League record attests, it’s not sustainable.
With 11 games to go in the Premier League campaign, the Reds will need to be much better to have any chance of making it into next season’s Champions League.
Steve Nicol blames Arne Slot for terrible first half against Nottingham Forest
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Speaking after full time, Steve Nicol criticised Slot openly. 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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__ej_0UON1c)
_“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
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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.
“_But we defended our box really well, and that was the reason that we were still nil-nil._
_“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 lots of set-pieces throughout the whole game, especially in the first half, so if we could bring 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, ‘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.
The Dutchman is quick to point out problems in his side without much improvement in the following games.
Liverpool have three wins in their last four Premier League games, but there is little confidence that they can maintain their form before the next bump in the road inevitably arrives.