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Arne Slot stated he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight games at home against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped 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 should look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made several offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

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