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Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight games at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way out of the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool slipped to an eighth loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Later we barely created any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach made several offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put 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 previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to create chances. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we allow go in.”