Slot explains why Wirtz pulled out in warm up – and reacts to win over Nottingham Forest | OneFootball

Arne Slot says he is hopeful that Florian Wirtz is not set for a spell on the sidelines after pulling out of the game with Nottingham Forest in the warm up.

Wirtz was due to start the game but pulled out shortly before kick-off, as Alexis Mac Allister scored a late winner to secure a 1-0 victory for the Reds.

“We don’t think it’s very serious but he felt his back too much in the warm up to start,” Slot explained.

“He wasn’t able to be at 100% or close to 100% and I think after being in this league for six, seven or eight months, he understands that no matter how good you are on the ball, you need to be at 100% at this level.

“So we decided not to play him but I hope and expect that he will be able to be with us again next week, but you never know.”

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Liverpool struggled in the first half but struck in second-half stoppage time, when Mac Allister tapped in from close range from Virgil van Dijk’s header back across goal.

“Emotions of happiness and relief,” Slot said on the win.

“This is probably the first time I have to do a different post-match press conference than I did for all the other games because today we did not play a good game. The performance, especially in the first half, was not as good as we’ve had so many times this season.

“But we’ve been on the wrong side of the score after a good performance far too many times and today I think we got more than we deserved. A draw would have been a fair result.

“We needed this goal, we needed that win, to be on the right side of things for once in a while because we’ve been so unlucky this season.

“Today, for the first time this year, it felt like we were a bit lucky.”