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Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 Premier League games at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's opener should have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against City before the national team pause. But Slot conceded the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Of course there is a way out, especially with the quality players 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 doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made multiple offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool last lost two successive home Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”