Liverpool's Manager Offers No Excuses and Pledges to Find Route Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable 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 prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly 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, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as the coach made multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”