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Nuno Espirito Santo refused to be drawn on whether Nottingham Forest is genuine title contenders and if Arne Slot was playing mind games with his comments earlier on Monday.
The Liverpool boss said he very much sees the East Midlands club as a rival for top spot, with Forest just six points off the league summit. Slot was also full of praise for his opposite number and said September’s defeat at Anfield – the only one he has suffered so far in the Premier League – no longer looks like a shock result.
But amid all the hype surrounding his team, Santo is remaining calm and insisted it will not impact his approach to the game.
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“We never change,” said the Portuguese coach. “The way we see things is the way we see the competition and I would say it’s the way we see life. It’s day by day, focus on our tasks, and tomorrow is another tough one. We have to play the games. We are here to compete against all the teams and I think we are doing well.”
On the title race, Santo added: “Nothing changes in our approach, it is the same. More important than anything is we know what we can do, how we want to do things and we know each other – our strengths and weaknesses. Let’s play the game.
“If we start thinking about ifs, it’s if, if, if, if. That’s why we always try to approach how we are going to prepare ourselves and how we are going to play the game. At the end of the game there will be no ifs.”
As for Slot’s praise, it didn’t seem to affect the Forest manager, who was even asked if he viewed the flattery as mind games ahead of the top-of-the-table tussle. “I don’t know. We try as much as possible to ignore what’s around,” he replied.
“We try as much as possible to ignore what’s around. When we do things good, we should be pleased but too many compliments can distract us. Maybe it was a surprise [when Forest won at Anfield] but it was a long time ago, many things have changed. It’s a new game.”