Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way From Malaise
Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven English top-flight games at home against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as Slot made multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Forest in 1963. The last time they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”