Liverpool's Manager Provides No Excuses and Pledges to Find Way Out of Slump
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.
Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.
“No one wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”
The team's performance fell apart as the coach introduced multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”
The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home league games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.
Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the entire season, and the first time they entered in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other game we have been the dominant side and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”