Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way from the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, 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 do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot introduced several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”
Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”