Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Route From Slump
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the title holders' slump.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Later we barely generated any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect 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 yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was very bad. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, 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 game we have been the dominant team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”