Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Way From Malaise
Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side contended the defender's first goal ought to 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 responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot introduced several offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the first time 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 capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”