Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Way Out of Malaise

Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a 6th defeat in 7 Premier League games at home to Forest and affirmed he would discover a way from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued Murillo’s opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back home Premier League fixtures by Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”