Daily Times

Arne Slot had made a serene start to the unenviable task of succeeding Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, but a 1-0 home defeat to Nottingham Forest has brought the Dutchman’s honeymoon period to an abrupt end and exposed cracks in the Reds’ facade.

Liverpool have little time to lick their wounds with a trip to AC Milan to come on Tuesday to open their return to the Champions League after a year away from Europe’s elite club competition.

Under Klopp, Liverpool’s prestige at the top of the European game was restored. The English giants reached three Champions League finals in five seasons between 2018 and 2022 and won the European Cup for the sixth time in the club’s history.

That is the legacy Slot inherits and the former Feyenoord boss has not been handed a kind draw by the new Champions League format.

Liverpool will face the two most succesful sides in the competition’s history in Milan and Real Madrid.

Xabi Alonso, who had been the favourite to replace Klopp, will return to Anfield with German champions Bayer Leverkusen in November, while Slot goes back to the Netherlands to face Dutch title holders PSV Eindhoven.

They also face more Italian, Spanish, German and French opposition in Bologna, Girona, Leipzig and Lille.

Yet Liverpool may relish that challenge after struggling when Forest put 11 men behind the ball on Saturday and held out for their first win at Anfield in 55 years.

The home side enjoyed nearly 70 percent possession but lacked the necessary spark to make it count.

“We lost the ball so many times in simple situations,” said a frustrated Slot. “We had a lot of ball possession but only managed to create three or four quite good chances, so that is by far not enough.”