Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way From Malaise

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal versus City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered consecutive league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”

Deanna Davis
Deanna Davis

A passionate gamer and writer with years of experience in strategy gaming and community building.