Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way From Malaise

Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool endured a sixth defeat in seven Premier League matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus City before the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we barely created anything.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible 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 good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive at Anfield league games against Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”