🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a 6th defeat in seven Premier League games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Later we hardly created any chances.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish 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 enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display fell apart as the coach made several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost two successive home Premier League games against Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”