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Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven Premier League matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the largest win at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home league games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling side and were able to create chances. Recently it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”