Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Malaise

Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”