Liverpool's Manager Offers Zero Justifications and Vows to Find Way From Malaise

Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display fell apart as the coach made multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”