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Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want 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 provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot made several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to create chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”