Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Slump

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games at home against Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely created any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach made several offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”