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Arne Slot stated he had to “examine my own performance” following the Reds endured a sixth loss in seven English top-flight games on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would discover a way out of the champions’ slump.

Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in eleven matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, 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 prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my team, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Later we barely generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I want to emphasise I am accountable for the current losses. You are responsible when you are victorious but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is far from acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I took the French defender off and brought on [Diogo] Jota and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s likely unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield league games against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive league matches by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 regardless of which team you encounter is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial half-hour perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other game we have been the controlling team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede find the net.”