Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.
“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as the coach made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”