Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Malaise
Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight games on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot made multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”