🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a 6th defeat in 7 Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe 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 every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”