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Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would discover a solution from the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's opener should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from doubting yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am accountable for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can never provide enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive changes when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we concede find the net.”