Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route Out of Malaise
Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ poor run.
Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wants to hear 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 examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely created any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
The team's display unravelled as Slot introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”