Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight games at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City before the international break. But Slot admitted the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot made multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League games by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”