Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Find Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches at home to Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising 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 entire campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”