Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route Out of Slump

Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight games at home to Forest and affirmed he would find a way from the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display 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 the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”

Adam Bradley
Adam Bradley

A technology strategist with over a decade of experience in digital transformation and innovation consulting.