Slot Offers Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Route From Slump
Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a sixth loss in 7 Premier League games at home to Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal versus City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wishes to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when chasing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”