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Arne Slot reaction to Liverpool loss at fulltime sums up new Reds manager

Virgil van Dijk has revealed the response of Liverpool manager Arne Slot to the shock defeat against Nottingham Forest
-Credit: (Image: Alex Livesey - Danehouse/Getty Images)


Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk has revealed that Arne Slot kept his cards close to his chest after the loss to Nottingham Forest - as he vowed that the team will respond quickly to the result.

Coming into the clash off the back of three wins in their opening fixtures of the Premier League season, Nuno Espirito Santo's team stunned the Reds as they inflicted a first defeat of the season. Clinching all three points with a 1-0 win, Callum Hudson-Odoi's strike in the 72nd minute was enough to separate the two sides.

Having halted the Merseysiders' momentum, the sobering result was the first time that new head coach Slot has experienced defeat during his Anfield reign so far. Now, club captain Van Dijk has revealed how his countryman reacted to the result as he admitted the new boss did not have a lot to say in the locker room afterwards.

Explaining what the mood was like in the Reds camp, the center-back admitted that the coach and players were already looking forward to their next game. As they hope to put things right against AC Milan in the Champions League in midweek, he said of Slot's reaction: "Not a lot. Obviously everyone is disappointed like we all should be but we also remind ourselves that Tuesday is another big game.

"If you want to dwell on things it is only going to backfire on yourself. We all should be disappointed but in a couple of hours we will already be thinking about recovery and being ready for Tuesday. That's how we live our lives and that is what we have to do but the disappointment is still there."

As for the performance itself against Forest, Van Dijk confessed that he felt the showing was under-par, earmarking two aspects of the display as being below standard. He said: "The result and also most of the performance was too rushed and we lost too many second balls.

Virgil van Dijk has revealed the response of the Liverpool head coach and players after a sobering defeat against Nottingham Forest
Virgil van Dijk has revealed the response of the Liverpool head coach and players after a sobering defeat against Nottingham Forest -Credit:Andrew Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images

"We know how direct they are so playing against a big striker you can sometimes lose a challenge and you have to be ready for the second ball and every time there was a second ball they were on the right side of it.

"They got momentum in terms of getting the winning the right challenges and they did they job very well and in terms of ourselves we weren't good enough. That's the disappointing point of it.

Addressing whether the international break had hampered the team's momentum, he added: "It's difficult for me to say. Everyone is coming back from different places and playing a different way but still I think even today when we were not at our best we created chances and it should have gone better.

"But it is a performance we are definitely not happy with, we expect a lot better from ourselves and losing at home is something that can't happen. We have to turn it around pretty quickly and that will be the focus."