Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route Out of Slump
Arne Slot stated he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely created any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with enough 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 Slot introduced several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league games by Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”