🔗 Share this article

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games at home to Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal versus City before the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at myself first and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we barely created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede go in.”