NewsArne Slot press conference: Nottingham Forest v Liverpool, Vitor Pereira and set-pieces
The Reds head to the City Ground on Sunday afternoon for Pereira's first Premier League game in charge.
Slot does not expect Forest to make wholesale changes in a tactical sense but will closely observe their encounter at Fenerbahce in the Europa League on Thursday evening.
Liverpool's boss looked ahead to the trip to Nottinghamshire during a press conference – see some key takeaways from it below.
On Liverpool's improved form...
Now compared to a few weeks ago, I don't think a lot has changed. I think from the last 19 games, we've lost twice and twice we've lost in [added] time and, in my opinion, twice we did not deserve to lose both of those games. We didn't need yesterday to know how difficult it is to win a Premier League game. We've experienced this [in] this season already a lot of times and I think all the teams experienced this. That's what made the Premier League nicer this season and last season – that it's much more competitive than probably two, three, four, five, six years ago.
We've improved compared to three or four months ago. I would even include the Bournemouth game because, apart from the goals we conceded, we had total control with dominance, we had a lot of chances – and the same could be said in the second half about [Manchester] City. We're in a much better place now than we were months ago and there are two very simple reasons for that. [There are more reasons] but the most simple two are how fit we are now compared with three or four months ago, and the second one is that we are much better in set-pieces at the moment.
On Forest...
Back then [in November] they were in a different management as well, because I think it was Sean Dyche's third or fourth game. That sometimes makes it a little bit more difficult because we only have tonight to see if this manager changes personnel, changes tactics. The good thing is that there is still one game to be played before we play them and we, of course, know him because he worked last season in the Premier League as well.
But usually you would also adapt to the players you have. Although managers have a preferred playing style, you take into account which players you have as well. So, let's see. It was a difficult game for us in the beginning of the season – although, again, I'm going to say the same in that the first half hour was very, very good from us, [with] chance after chance and then we conceded a set-piece and the game went completely the opposite way. So, we know what we can expect if we play Forest because I've played them three times already.
On the 'improvement in set-pieces and whether he has a bigger role in set-piece routines'...
I'm happy that you ask that question because it would be very unfair to Aaron [Briggs], who was partly responsible for that because, in the end, I'm responsible for everything. So, it's always my end responsibility. But we've been in that period of time so, so, so unlucky. We all knew that it couldn't go on like that because we hardly gave away a chance in set-pieces but every ball went in, and we created multiple opportunities to score and the ball didn't go in. So that things go back to normal now, it's something which we expected.
Aaron had an analyst and the two of them were mainly responsible – in the end, I'm responsible – but they did the work. That hasn't changed. So, Lewis [Mahoney] does the main work, if you would call it like this, and then we have a meeting together and we look at the last details. But in general, we didn't change that much. We maybe made one or two slight changes but we didn't change much. What changed is things went back to normal, because in the Champions League I think we were No.1 in set-pieces. I would mainly say things went back to normal and we've adjusted one or two small things.