Arne Slot HITS BACK at criticism following first Liverpool loss

Arne Slot has hit back at his critics following Liverpool's loss to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League at the weekend.

Liverpool lost 1-0 at Anfield in a frustrating game for fans, as a number of players underperformed on a weekend where both Manchester City and Arsenal won.

Slot came under criticism from a number of prominent figures after the game, both for his tactical changes in the second half and his decision to not make any changes to a side that featured plenty of air miles following the international break.

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Ahead of tonight's game against AC Milan, Slot has hit back at those who claim he should have rotated his side at the weekend, instead saying too many of his side weren't up to the standard he expects.

"If rotation is why we don't win then the first game I lost in 2024 wouldn't be last Saturday," Slot said.

"Everyone can have their own opinion. It is too simple to put it down to rotation, but too many players wernot at their best level. Forest made it difficult for us and when you don't win you look at as many arguments as you can. I prefer to see the game back and what we didn't do well and some of it was not related to rotation.

"We will never know if we would have won if rotated. Someone asked me about how many players started for national teams, now I can do something about rotation as they are all with me but before that they were with their national teams. We try to prepare them for that, we didn't lose because of rotation, too many players didn't do what they can," he said.

Slot's Forest disappointment

The loss to Forest was the first speed bump in Slot's impressive start to life at Anfield so far.

"It's not only the journalists who were disappointed against Forest, the team and the players were too!" he said.

"[After] the Manchester United result, the journalists were positive so we keep things in perspective but it was a total different game versus Forest.

"We should be disappointed when we lose at home and if you are not when you do that for Nottingham Forest then something is wrong at Liverpool."

Attention now turns to the Champions League and a difficult first game in the competition for Slot.

Fans have been calling for the reintroduction of Wataru Endo against AC Milan, with the Japanese midfielder capable of adding more steel to a midfield that was exposed on the counter-attack at the weekend.

It remains to be seen if Slot will make any changes to the team for tonight – his side still have the best defensive record in the Premier League after the first four games, so the Liverpool manager might not be too concerned at this stage.