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Arne Slot declared he had to “look at myself” after the Reds suffered a 6th loss in seven English top-flight games at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would discover a way from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club slipped to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal ought to have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wishes to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to 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 flow of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to net a strike. Afterwards we barely generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the talented players we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you look back you are always thinking: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is something else from doubting yourself.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are losing. I can never come up with enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

The team's performance unravelled as Slot made multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical away at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to equalize at 1-1. Then it was brave, now it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home Premier League games by Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost back-to-back league games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I did not witness us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to create opportunities. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we allow find the net.”