🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in seven English top-flight matches at home to Forest and affirmed he would find a way out of the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display fell apart as Slot made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”