Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Way Out of Slump

Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself first and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot made multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender off 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 probably unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”

Ricky Cook
Ricky Cook

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