🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a 6th defeat in 7 English top-flight matches at home to Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I ought to examine my own role first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home Premier League fixtures against Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you face is a terrible outcome. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the entire campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they found the back of the net.

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