Slot Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Plot Way From Slump
Arne Slot stated he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we barely generated anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph 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 your abilities.
“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.
Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”