Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Plot Route From Slump
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wants to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
The team's display fell apart as Slot made several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to create chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we allow find the net.”