Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Way From Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot made several attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”