Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight matches at home against Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting your abilities.
“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
The team's display fell apart as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”
The Anfield side last lost two successive home Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”