Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Route Out of Slump

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight games on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”