Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Find Way Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility rested 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,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach made several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league games against Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”

Thomas Garcia
Thomas Garcia

A passionate gamer and tech writer with over a decade of experience covering the gaming industry and its evolving trends.