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Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a sixth loss in seven English top-flight matches at home to Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the title holders' slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot introduced several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive league games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating 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 dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we allow find the net.”