Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we barely generated anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as the coach introduced several attacking changes when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The last time they lost back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”