Arne Slot: Fans - and father - can be hard to please

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot may have lost only two matches all season but there are still occasions when he cannot impress his dad.

The Dutchman regularly calls his father Arend after matches but following the 2-1 midweek Champions League win over Lille, which extended their 100% record in the competition to seven matches, Slot senior was not particularly impressed.

It would have been difficult to match the drama of the two goals in stoppage time which secured the Premier League leaders' victory at Brentford last weekend but Slot’s father felt the team should have been more adventurous against the Ligue 1 side.

However, Slot, whose remarkable maiden season has seen him win 26 of 33 matches with just one Premier League defeat, said patience will be important as he expects struggling Ipswich to pose a tough test at Anfield.

"It is difficult for fans and my father is a fan as well," he said.

"When I called him after the game he says, 'ah, it wasn’t as exciting as other games of Liverpool’ when he watched the game against Lille.

"I had to try to explain to him these games you can easily lose if you are starting to force all kinds of difficult balls but he’s not always agreeing with me then.

"As a manager I was quite happy with our performance against Lille as they were well organised as a team.

"I think there was one moment in the game I can remember Curtis (Jones) tried to play, from the halfway line, a bit of a ball that had a bit of risk and we lost that ball and they counter-attacked us.

"That is the risk you have if you play against a low-block team. (Nottingham) Forest is probably the best in the league if you play these stupid balls – I call them stupid balls – which my father would love to see us playing a bit more.

"There