Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Malaise
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way from the champions’ slump.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City prior to the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Later we barely created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.
“I wish to stress 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 sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow find the net.”