Slot Offers Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Way From Slump
Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ slump.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. No matter 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 make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot made multiple offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably unwise.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”