Liverpool boss Arne Slot has pointed the finger of blame at himself after his side suffered a humiliating 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest. The Merseyside giants were second best throughout the encounter as they ended the afternoon eight points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal after playing one more game than the Gunners.
Liverpool fell behind just after the half-hour mark as Murillo fired the ball past home goalkeeper Alisson following a corner.
Igor Jesus thought he had doubled the visitors’ advantage before the break as he lashed the ball into the back of the net. But that strike was ruled out after he was deemed by VAR to have handled the ball in the lead up to the goal.
Sean Dyche’s men did ultimately go 2-0 just after the interval after Nicolo Savona struck from 10 yards. And Morgan Gibbs-White wrapped up the win for Forest with a third goal late on.
Liverpool have now suffered defeat in six of their 12 Premier League matches this term after losing just four times throughout the whole of last season.
And after the final whistle at Anfield, Slot explained: “No matter what kind of run of form you’re in, if you lose 3-0 at home against… a team that did really well today, but it’s not really our standards that we are losing a game at home 3-0.
“We should all be very disappointed but we also know that in a few days, Champions League is coming up.
“The first half-hour, I think the players did what we were hoping for, played with a lot of energy, created enough chances to go a goal up.
“Then we conceded a set-piece and that changed the momentum and the game completely. Afterwards, we struggled a lot to find openings to find chances that we were able to find in the first half-hour.
“I tried to make a couple of changes, a couple of adjustments, but that didn’t work out the way I wanted."
The former Feyenoord boss then took the blame for the defeat as he insisted: “A big disappointment. When things go well, things don’t go well, it is always my responsibility.”
He then added: “What you do see is that after we go 1-0 down, we do struggle - struggle in the sense that we don’t create as many chances. We try to pump them up, to give them the information they need to start the second half well, and immediately after the start we conceded the 2-0.
“That is again a big blow for us and a big boost of confidence for them. The players kept on trying - I cannot blame them on that - but it was very difficult for us to find an opening. And when we found an opening, they blocked every single shot we had.”