Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Slump
Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City before the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as the coach introduced multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home league games against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling side and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we concede go in.”