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Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” after the Reds endured a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches at home against Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side contended the defender's opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely created any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as the coach introduced multiple attacking substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing on home soil, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate opportunities. Recently it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”