Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way from the champions’ poor run.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the international break. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
The team's display unravelled as the coach made several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “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 courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”