Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Route From Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a 6th loss in 7 Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot introduced several offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”