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Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a sixth loss in 7 English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham 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 Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool contended the defender's opener should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against City before the international break. But the manager admitted the responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself initially and my squad, but it does show you how a score can change the flow of a game. Before I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Later we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current losses. You are answerable when you are victorious but also liable when you are defeated. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance unravelled as the coach made several attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back home Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad outcome. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I did not witness us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole season, and the initial occasion they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other game we have been the controlling side and were capable to create opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”