Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Malaise

Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back home league games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow find the net.”

Benjamin Pope
Benjamin Pope

A tech strategist with over a decade of experience in digital innovation and startup ecosystems across Europe.