🔗 Share this article

Arne Slot declared he needed to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in 7 English top-flight games at home to Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an eighth loss in eleven 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 similar reasons to the captain's chalked-off goal against Manchester City before the national team pause. But Slot admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine my own role first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Afterwards we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as Slot made multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive at Anfield Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a 3-0 scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the dominant team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we concede go in.”