Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way Out of Slump

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a sixth loss in seven English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side contended the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus City before the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot introduced several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”