Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo says “money doesn’t play football” after Liverpool boss Arne Slot suggested they had spent their way to success this season.

Forest welcome Slot’s Premier League leaders to the City Ground on Tuesday for a crunch match which could determine whether they are in a title race.

Nuno has guided his side to six-successive victories in the league and they would move to within three points of Liverpool with victory on Tuesday night.

Slot was complimentary about Nuno and Forest ahead of the game, but negated it by saying: “If you look at the money they spent, it’s not a complete surprise.”

But Nuno said it was about the players rather than the money spent.

“I don’t know the spending, I don’t know the value. That doesn’t happen,” he said.

“I look at the player as a human being and how I can make them better. How can I make you better?

“Money doesn’t play football, people do. It’s not my issue, we are not concerned about the price tag of things.”

Nuno also said the suggestion his side were involved in a Premier League title race was based on “if, if, if, if”.

“We have to play the games. We are here to compete against all the teams, I think we are doing well and nothing changes in our approach,” he said.

“It’s the same, more important than anything is we know what we can do, we know each other, our strengths, our 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, how we are going to play the game.

“At the end of the game, there will be no ifs….I’m so sorry, I apologise.

“When we do things good, we should be pleased but too many compliments can distract us, so we don’t want to pay too much attention,” he said.

“It was the beginning of the season, maybe it was a surprise, but it was a long time ago, many things have changed.

“No one in this room could ever predict what is happening. It is the ambition and desire to do things well and the hard work of the players and commitment.”