🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a 6th defeat in seven English top-flight games on their own turf to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would discover a way out of the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest win at Liverpool's stadium in their club records as the Merseyside club slipped to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was once more anonymous and the home side argued the defender's opener ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus City prior to the international break. But the manager admitted the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“No one wishes to hear me now talking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the momentum of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely created anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you look back you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

“I want to stress I am responsible for the current losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are defeated. I can not provide sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach made several offensive changes when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, now it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

The manager said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening half-hour perhaps the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to generate chances. Recently it is nearly constantly that we miss our chances and the ones we allow go in.”