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Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”

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

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is nearly consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”