Slot Provides No Excuses and Vows to Plot Route From Slump
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool endured a sixth loss in 7 Premier League games on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the champions’ poor run.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City before the international break. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and made no excuses.
“Nobody wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Later we barely created any chances.
“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.
“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present losses. 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 far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as the coach made multiple attacking changes when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s probably unwise.”
The Anfield side last lost two successive home league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”