Slot Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way From Slump

Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a way from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we allow go in.”