Liverpool's Manager Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Route Out of Slump
Arne Slot stated he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking 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 initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made multiple offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were able to generate chances. Recently it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”