Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Malaise
Arne Slot stated he had to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the title holders' slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable 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 display fell apart as the coach introduced multiple attacking changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. 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 campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”