Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Find Route From Slump

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way from the champions’ poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the international break. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we barely created any chances.

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

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost back-to-back league matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”