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Arne Slot stated he had to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a sixth loss in seven Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the champions’ slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display fell apart as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to generate chances. Recently it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”