Liverpool boss Arne Slot believes Nottingham Forest need to be within the title race after his aspect have been held to a 1-1 draw on the Metropolis Floor.
Forest hit the entrance inside 10 minutes as Chris Wooden slotted house his thirteenth objective of the marketing campaign ane deserved their lead heading into the interval after Liverpool didn’t register a shot on the right track.
Forest appeared like they’d shut the hole to the league leaders to simply three factors till Diogo Jota headed in from a nook by fellow substitute Kostas Tsimikas simply 22 seconds after the pair have been launched.
Forest had goalkeeper Matz Sels to thank for his or her share of the spoils after he made a string of excellent second-half saves to carry Liverpool to a second successive league draw.
Slot doesn’t suppose Forest will drop loads of factors between now and the top of the season.
He mentioned: “After 20 video games you may decide the desk significantly better than the primary 5 to 10 video games and I don’t suppose they’re there due to luck.
“It’s so exhausting for everybody to play towards, they’ve already had some troublesome away video games and it reveals you they’re a crew that may compete with the highest finish of the league desk.
“I see no purpose for them to drop loads of factors, as a result of they’re a troublesome crew to play towards.
“We solely conceded one (counter-attack) right here at the moment in 98 minutes of whole domination.
“Being 1-0 down right here and it’s so exhausting to attain towards this crew, it’s not what we needed, we needed three factors.”
Slot admitted he didn’t suppose the influence of Tsimikas and Jota can be so immediately dramatic.
“Scoring from a set-piece isn’t one thing I had in thoughts once I introduced the 2 of them in,” he added.
“We introduced an attacker (Jota) in for a defender (Ibrahima Konate) to play much more attacking soccer than we did as a result of we wanted targets.
“However in fact Jota scored the objective and Kostas with the set-piece. (Jota) had a big effect, he was the one aside from Mo (Salah) that had a number of probabilities to attain.”
Forest prolonged their unbeaten league run to seven matches and are nonetheless solely six factors behind Liverpool on the high of the desk.
Nuno Espirito Santo displayed his delight at his gamers’ combating efficiency.
He mentioned: “We’re competing very effectively. That is the mentality of the squad, it’s about taking part in, competing and bettering.
“You recognize what I take into consideration the desk, for now it isn’t vital, it’s how we put together for Southampton.
“We have now to present credit score to our gamers after we face such proficient opponents and we elevate the bar and problem ourselves. It’s enormous for us.
“I feel it was a lesson for all of us. That is how we need to compete on the restrict of our efforts and we noticed that. Very very pleased with the work of the gamers.”
Forest 1-1 Liverpool
