Slot Offers No Excuses and Vows to Plot Way Out of Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the international break. But the manager conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first 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 strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach introduced several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League games against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”