Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Slump
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a 6th loss in seven Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a way out of the title holders' poor run.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we hardly created anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as Slot introduced several attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was very bad. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in all other game we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is nearly consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”