Slot Offers Zero Justifications and Vows to Plot Way Out of Malaise
Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.
Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.
“No one wants to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated anything.
“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.
“I want to stress I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”
Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach introduced multiple offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”
Liverpool last lost two successive home league fixtures against Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.
The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”