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Arne Slot declared he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool contended the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role initially and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the quality footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach made multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back home Premier League games by Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial half-hour maybe the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were able to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the ones we concede find the net.”