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

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight games at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th loss in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we barely created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display fell apart as Slot made multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”

Craig Richardson
Craig Richardson

A tech journalist and software developer with over a decade of experience covering emerging technologies and digital trends.