Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Route Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded 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 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”