🔗 Share this article

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution from the title holders' slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the international break. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible 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 acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the dominant side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”