With the international break over, the 2025/26 Premier League season will enter its 12th round of matches, with Liverpool hosting Nottingham Forest at Anfield. Manager Sloot stated that he is not yet focused on assessing the title race standings and insisted that his and the team's current focus is on winning every game.

In the last league match, Liverpool conceded goals in both halves and ultimately lost 0-3 away to Manchester City, managed by Pep Guardiola.

After only managing one win and four losses in their last five matches, Liverpool are currently in 8th place in the standings with 18 points, 8 points behind Arsenal in first place, thus putting them at a disadvantage in the title race.

When asked about the title race, Liverpool manager Sloot said, "I've said this many times, we're not thinking about it or talking about it right now. In fact, we didn't discuss it when we were leading the table last season either. We're always focused on the games right now."

"Although I said this many times last season, I still want to repeat it this season: the most reasonable way to judge the league standings is after all 38 rounds are over. In my opinion, the second most reasonable time is after the 19th round, then we can see where we are. But right now, our only focus is to win every game, which is exactly the same as our thinking at this time last season."

In terms of head-to-head records, Nottingham Forest have won 2, drawn 1 and lost 1 of their last 4 matches against Nottingham Forest. It is worth mentioning that when Liverpool played Nottingham Forest away last season, they came from behind to draw 1-1 after the late Jota scored a goal.

Slot continued, "Nottingham Forest has changed two managers, and no two managers are exactly the same, but Nuno's coaching style is closer to Dyche's than Postecoglu's. Of course, the styles are different, but they are closer. So I think this game will most likely be similar to the last time we faced Nottingham Forest, but now Dyche has replaced Postecoglu."

In addition, Sloet added, "I know that recently we've been trailing 0-1 more often than leading 1-0. I can't give a specific reason right now, maybe I need more time to think about it, but it definitely affects the game."

“I’ve said it many times: Manchester City’s lead in the first half was entirely deserved, but if it had been 1-1 going into halftime, it would have been a different story. When a goal is disallowed for a reason that isn’t unreasonable, and then a few seconds later you’re down 0-2, it has a huge impact on the game, but I can’t explain why that happened yet.”