Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route From Slump

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot made several attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “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 brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to create chances. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede go in.”