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Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following Liverpool suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League matches on their own turf against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in eleven matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

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

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made several offensive changes when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow go in.”