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Arne Slot stated he had to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven Premier League games at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several attacking substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we allow find the net.”