Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back 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 emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot made several attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”