Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route Out of Malaise
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you triumph 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 your abilities.
“I wish to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot made multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen at City, but in all other game we have been the controlling side and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”