Liverpool's Manager Provides Zero Justifications and Pledges to Plot Route From Malaise
Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight games on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the title holders' 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 8th defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.
“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.
“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.
“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”
Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach made multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”
The Anfield side last lost two successive home Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.
The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.
“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”