🔗 Share this article

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Later we barely generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”