Slot Offers Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Way From Malaise

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made several offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial half-hour maybe the whole season, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow find the net.”

Thomas Neal
Thomas Neal

A passionate gamer and content creator with years of experience in competitive gaming and community building.