Liverpool's Manager Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Route Out of Slump
Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool endured a 6th defeat in 7 Premier League games on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Later we hardly generated any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach made several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive league matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”