🔗 Share this article

Liverpool's head coach stated he needed to “look at myself” after Liverpool endured a sixth loss in seven Premier League games at home against Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution out of the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the largest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th defeat in 11 matches in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and the home side contended the defender's first goal ought to have been disallowed for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a goal. Later we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the quality players we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable for the present defeats. You are responsible 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 not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach introduced several offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the identical away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I substituted the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive league matches by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was extremely poor. Competing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent 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 much in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the first time they entered in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t at City, but in every other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to generate chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we fail to convert our opportunities and the attempts we allow go in.”