Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest 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 unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we barely created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, 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 never come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's display fell apart as Slot introduced multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League fixtures by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”