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Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can never provide enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach made multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League fixtures by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening half-hour maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

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