Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way From Slump

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

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

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost back-to-back league games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”