Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Route From Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we barely generated anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's performance unravelled as the coach made multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”
Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we allow go in.”