Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Slump
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth loss in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we barely created any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s likely unwise.”
Liverpool last lost two successive home Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they entered in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow find the net.”