Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions 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 score can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home Premier League fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”