Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Route Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth defeat in 7 English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a way out of the champions’ poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as Slot made several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial half-hour maybe the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”

Brittany Weaver
Brittany Weaver

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