Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route From Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth loss in seven English top-flight games at home against Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself 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 score a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with 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 display fell apart as Slot made several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”