Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. 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.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”