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Liverpool's head coach declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in 7 English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest win at Liverpool's stadium in their history as Liverpool slipped to an eighth defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and the home side contended Murillo’s opener ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City prior to the international break. But the manager conceded the buck rested 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 Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly created any chances.

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

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current defeats. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not come up with 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 Slot made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games by Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour maybe 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 controlling team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we concede go in.”