Liverpool's Manager Offers Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Way From Malaise
Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a way out of the title holders' poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an 8th loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious 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 Slot made several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”
The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”