Liverpool's Manager Offers Zero Justifications and Vows to Plot Route Out of Slump
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely created any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. 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 results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach introduced multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”