Richard Keys believes Arne Slot underestimated Nottingham Forest at the weekend – something former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp would never have done.
The Dutchman, who succeed Klopp in the summer, tasted defeat for the first time since taking the top job at Anfield as the Reds fell to a shock a 1-0 loss against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
Liverpool named the same XI that beat Manchester United 3-0 prior to the international break, though they had been on international duty beforehand.
And Keys reckons that was a sign of naivety from Slot, whose predecessor would have known better. Writing for his blog, Keys said: “It’s been suggested Slot got it wrong because he picked 11 starters who’d been on international duty.
If it was an error I don’t think Klopp would’ve made it. He knew our league better than Slot.
“For the record, Forest started only three who’d been away. In Holland, you can probably get away what Slot did. The intensity is less severe in the Eredivisie.
In our league, there’s no hiding place. It’s full on every week. I guess Slot will learn that and we should give him time, but this weekend Slotball went flat.”
Klopp was often vocal about fixture congestion during his reign, particularly following international breaks.
The German was at the helm for nine years before standing down at the end of last season.
Slot, however, hit back at the suggestion that the international break was a factor behind Liverpool’s surprise loss, saying: “It’s always difficult but I don’t think [the break] had anything to do with it.
Players came back strong and I saw today a team that wanted to fight until the end.
That wasn’t to do with energy. We simply had the ball a lot we had to create from ball possession.
“If you look at the goals we scored until now, we scored quite a few from transition moments from winning the ball back but the other team (Forest) played over our press a lot with a lot of long balls. We mostly got the ball in our last line.
“It wasn’t good enough today because too many individual performances in ball possession were not up to the standards that I’m used to from these players.”
Liverpool have a chance to respond when they travel to AC Milan in the Champions League on Tuesday night before hosting Bournemouth in the Premier League at the weekend.
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