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

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”

Lisa Fowler
Lisa Fowler

A tech enthusiast and business consultant with over a decade of experience in digital innovation and entrepreneurship.