Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Route Out of Malaise

Arne Slot stated he had to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the champions’ poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “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 Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back league games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”

Kayla Hernandez
Kayla Hernandez

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