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Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a 6th loss in 7 Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th loss in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach introduced several offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back home league fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Recently it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”