Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Find Route From Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot introduced multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us creating so much in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to generate chances. Lately it is nearly consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”

Alexis Clark
Alexis Clark

Lena Schmidt is a Berlin-based journalist and political analyst with over a decade of experience covering European affairs.