Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way From Slump

Arne Slot stated he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”