Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way From Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a 6th loss in 7 Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot made several offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive league games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow find the net.”