It wasn't the debate Arne Slot expected to be having after guiding his team to the Champions League knockout stages with a game to spare. But after Liverpool's routine win over Lille on Tuesday prompted bizarre claims they are a "boring" side to watch, the boss of the Premier League top scorers had to field similar suggestions closer to home.

The issue, it appears, is the patience occasionally required when attempting to break down the most obdurate of opponents - a task with which the Reds have become all too accustomed this season. And Slot's father Arend clearly is quite demanding in this regard.

"That is difficult for fans and my father is a fan as well," explained Slot. "When I call him after a game he says 'Ah, it wasn't as exciting as other games of Liverpool' when he watched the game against Lille.

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"I had to try to explain to him these games you can easily lose if you are starting to force all kinds of difficult balls but he's not always agreeing with me then!"

Cue laughter among the assembled media at the AXA Training Centre on Friday morning. Liverpool, though, can expect more of the same at Anfield on Saturday afternoon when struggling Ipswich Town visit on the back of a 6-0 thrashing at home to Manchester City last weekend.

And Slot added: "As a manager I was quite happy with our performance against Lille as they were well organised as a team and I think there was one moment in the game I can remember Curtis (Jones) tried to play, from the halfway line, a bit of a ball that had a bit of risk and we lost that ball and they counter-attacked us. So that is the risk you have if you play against a low-block team.

"(Nottingham) Forest is probably the best in the league if you play these stupid balls – I call them stupid balls – which my father would love to see us playing a bit more. That is the risk of them creating much more chances and it is a difficult balance of taking the risk and conceding a lot or having control and not creating as much.

"Against this team, going 1-0 down like we have seen against Forest is even a bigger problem especially against a low block. It is a balance we have to find and I understand it is difficult for fans who come to the stadium to see us winning but hopefully also scoring a lot of goals in an exciting match.

"But you need two teams for that and the better we do the less likely it is teams come to Anfield and say 'okay, let's go to a high press and press them all over the pitch'."

Slot's first competitive game as Liverpool head coach was at promoted Ipswich back in August, where a 2-0 win set the tone for both teams with the Reds now standing six points clear at the Premier League summit with a game in hand while the Tractor Boys are in the relegation zone.

The Liverpool boss, though, believes there is little comparison between those early days in the job and the present.

“The fact was I only worked with 13 to 14 players for one-and-a-half weeks back then," he said. "It's been said how difficult it is to come in in the middle of a season and try to work with a new team with the schedule we are having but to be fair it felt a bit the same for me because 12, 13, 14 players came in one-and-a-half weeks before the start of the season and from that moment we only played games.

"It is normal that we have improved compared to that game, although especially the second-half performance was something that was quite similar to the performances I see currently."