Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route Out of Slump

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the champions’ poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility 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 Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can not provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot made multiple attacking changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted 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 brave, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we allow find the net.”