Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way From Slump
Arne Slot stated he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the title holders' 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 slipped to an 8th loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”
