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Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth defeat in 7 Premier League matches on their own turf to Forest and affirmed he would discover a solution out of the title holders' slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus City prior to the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should look at my own role initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely created anything.

“Of course there is a way out, particularly with the talented players we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never provide sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach made several attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were able to create chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”