Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created anything.
“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, 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 fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to create chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”