Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Plot Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire season, and the initial occasion 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 dominant team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”