🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we barely generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality players we have. Regardless if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the present defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot introduced several attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest last season,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home Premier League fixtures by Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back league matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us creating so much in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they arrived in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to generate opportunities. Lately it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we concede go in.”