Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way From Malaise

Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth loss in 7 Premier League games on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side contended the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot made several offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home league fixtures by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 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 haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to generate chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”

Carl Goodwin
Carl Goodwin

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