Liverpool news as Arne Slot issues defense and Jurgen Klopp vindicated

Liverpool faces Nottingham Forest on Sunday as the Reds chase Champions League qualification, while Arne Slot defends former set-piece coach Aaron Briggs and Philippe Coutinho exits another club

Arne Slot defended one of his former coaches(Image: Sky Sports)

Liverpool is aiming for a hat-trick of victories when it faces Nottingham Forest this Sunday.

The Reds have struggled with inconsistency this season, and head coach Arne Slot is aware that they can't afford many more slip-ups in the battle for Champions League places. Despite a disappointing run of form at the close of 2025, Liverpool has only suffered two Premier League defeats this calendar year.

Bournemouth triumphed over the Reds in late January, while Manchester City handed Slot's players a rare home loss earlier this month. The club's recent improvement may be linked to the exit of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs, with the Reds appearing more robust from dead-ball situations since his departure.

However, Slot has dismissed any criticism of his former colleague. In other news, former Reds manager Jurgen Klopp seems to have been vindicated after a past Liverpool star made an early exit from his childhood club. Here's the latest from Anfield...

Jurgen Klopp vindicated

Ex-Liverpool midfielder Philippe Coutinho has secured another departure, this time from Vasco da Gama. The Brazilian famously received warnings that he'd come to rue leaving Liverpool when he pushed for a transfer to Barcelona during the 2017-18 campaign.

Coutinho has now informed Vasco da Gama, where he began his youth career, of his intention to end his contract. Brazilian media outlets have reported that the announcement caught Vasco off guard, with the club having already begun talks with the 33-year-old regarding fresh terms.

Philippe Coutinho is looking for his next club(Image: Getty Images)

His current agreement was due to expire in June. The decision appears to have been triggered by supporter backlash following jeers directed at him during a recent match at home. This represents yet another disappointing chapter in a career that has failed to live up to expectations since Klopp's prophetic words just before his Barcelona switch in early 2018.

The German manager cautioned: "Stay here [Liverpool] and they will end up building a statue in your honor. Go somewhere else, to Barcelona, to Bayern Munich, to Real Madrid, and you will be just another player. Here you can be something more."

Arne Slot issues defense

Slot has come to the defense of ex-Liverpool set-piece coach Briggs. Liverpool parted company with Briggs in December after the club conceded 13 goals from set-pieces in 26 matches. During that period, the Reds only netted eight times from dead-ball situations.

Liverpool has let in only two set-piece goals and netted eight in the 12 matches since Briggs departed. Slot was questioned on Thursday about the team's strategy for set pieces, but he argued it was inappropriate to lay all the blame on Briggs.

"I'm happy that you asked that question because it would be very unfair to Aaron, who was only partly responsible for that, because in the end, I'm responsible for everything," he said.

"In the end, it's always my responsibility. But we were, in that period of time, so, so, so unlucky. We all knew that it couldn't go on like that, because we hardly gave away a chance in set-pieces, but every goal went in, and we created multiple opportunities to score, and the ball didn't go in.

"So that things go back to normal now is something which we expected. Aaron had an analyst, and the two of them were mainly responsible for it – in the end, I'm responsible, but they did the work. That hasn't changed.

"So Lewis [Mahoney, first-team set-piece analyst] does the main work, and then we have a meeting together, and we look at the last details. But in general, we didn't change that much. We maybe made one or two slight changes, but we didn't change much.

"What changed is things went back to normal, because in the Champions League, when Aaron was with us, we were already very good – I think we were No. 1 in set-pieces. I would mainly say things went back to normal and we've adjusted one or two small things."