Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Slump

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates 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.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ 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 winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive league matches by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the controlling team and were able to generate chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”