Liverpool's Manager Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Find Route From Malaise

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th loss in 7 Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the champions’ poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped 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 Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning 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 good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced several offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”

Jennifer Martinez
Jennifer Martinez

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