Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route Out of Malaise

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the largest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool contended Murillo’s opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”

Nicholas Gordon
Nicholas Gordon

A seasoned football analyst with over a decade of experience in coaching and tactical development.