🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches at home against Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as Slot introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back home Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create chances. Recently it is nearly constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”