Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route Out of Malaise

Arne Slot stated he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”