Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested 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 Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want 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 acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as Slot introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other game we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”