Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Route Out of Malaise
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued Murillo’s opener ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we hardly generated anything.
“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide 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 fell apart as Slot introduced several attacking changes when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”