Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Way From Malaise
Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the title holders' poor run.
Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”
The team's performance unravelled as Slot made multiple attacking changes when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen at City, but in all other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”