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Arne Slot stated he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a 6th defeat in 7 Premier League games at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus City prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we barely created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the talented players 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 questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”