Liverpool's Manager Offers Zero Justifications and Pledges to Find Way Out of Slump

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in 7 English top-flight games at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal 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 conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as the coach made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home league games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the ones we allow go in.”