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Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth defeat in 7 English top-flight matches at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ slump.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and Liverpool argued the defender's first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just hoping for us to net a goal. Afterwards we barely generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I wish 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 come up with enough reasons for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as Slot made several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games against Forest in the sixties. The last time they lost back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the first time they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”