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

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an 8th loss in 11 matches in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more anonymous and Liverpool contended Murillo’s first goal should have been disallowed for comparable grounds to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal against Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot admitted the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to hear me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine my own role initially and my team, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to net a strike. Afterwards we hardly generated any chances.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented players we have. Regardless if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we improve, in what aspects can we make changes?’ but that is different from questioning yourself.

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

The team's display unravelled as the coach introduced several offensive changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he remarked. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he scored straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool last lost two successive home Premier League games by Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us creating so many chances in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the entire campaign, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant side and were able to create chances. Lately it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”