Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Way Out of Malaise
Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side contended the defender's opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely created 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 improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”
The team's display fell apart as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”