Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Malaise
Arne Slot stated he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am responsible for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's display fell apart as the coach made several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures by Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”