Slot Provides Zero Justifications and Vows to Find Way Out of Slump
Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the champions’ poor run.
Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.
“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘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 answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.
“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow find the net.”