🔗 Share this article

Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” following the Reds suffered a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight matches on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's chalked-off goal versus Manchester City prior to the international break. But Slot admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at my own role initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the momentum of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we hardly created any chances.

“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, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also liable when you are losing. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as the coach introduced several offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took the French defender off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool last lost two successive home league fixtures by Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

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