Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route Out of Slump
Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City before the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely created any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want 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 not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot introduced several offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected 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 entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.
“It wasn’t against Manchester 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 opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”