Slot labelled “huge part of the problem” despite Liverpool win at Forest: Nicol

Arne Slot is facing pointed criticism even after Liverpool’s dramatic 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest, with Steve Nicol focusing on the way we started the match rather than the way we finished it.

The 47-year-old coach saw Alexis Mac Allister bundle in a 97th-minute winner at the City Ground, but pundit Nicol argued our first-half performance reflected a team that simply was not mentally prepared.

“There’s no question Arne Slot is a huge part of the problem in this first half,” Nicol said on ESPN FC, as he questioned whether the coaching staff should have sensed a flat mood before kick-off.

“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.”

It is strong language, and it is not hard to see why the ex-Red went there when the first half looked like a side struggling to complete simple passes, even with Forest playing their own part in making the afternoon uncomfortable.

It is also worth stressing the context, because Slot’s plans were disrupted just minutes before the match when Florian Wirtz felt his back in the warm-up and had to be pulled from the starting XI.

Curtis Jones was thrown in, Dominik Szoboszlai was asked to fill in at right-back again, and the shape had to be tweaked during the game, which is not ideal when you are already missing Alexander Isak and relying on a thin bench for late impact.

What Steve Nicol’s Slot criticism is really about

Nicol is not really criticising the substitutions or the final push, because the complaint is about the “mental state” we walked out with and the idea that a manager should detect that early warning.

That debate is only going to grow when Slot himself admitted the balance of the game did not scream “away win”, even if the points are gold dust in a tight top-four chase.

The Dutchman was blunt about the fairness of the outcome: “A draw would have been a fairer result than a win for us.”

The Forest stats show why Liverpool got away with it

The match data backs up the idea that it was not a polished away performance, even if Opta’s report highlights how our second-half shot volume improved and how late winners have become a theme.

Nottingham Forest vs Liverpool match stats (via SofaScore)

Mac Allister did not pretend it was pretty either, calling the first half below our standard before pointing out we improved after the break.

Liverpool will happily bank the three points and move on, but Nicol’s critique makes one thing clear: winning late does not stop the conversation when the performance beforehand was so unconvincing.

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