Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth loss in 7 Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a way from the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.
“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from doubting your abilities.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered consecutive league games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”