Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Way From Malaise

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we barely created any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach made several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”

Larry Jackson
Larry Jackson

Elara is a systems engineer with over a decade of experience in performance analytics and monitoring technologies.