Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated 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 thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.
“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can not provide enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”
The team's display fell apart as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games by Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”