Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a 6th defeat in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the talented players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible 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.”
The team's performance unravelled as the coach made several attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “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 courageous, currently it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield league games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered consecutive league matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede go in.”