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Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth defeat in seven Premier League matches at home against Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' poor run.

Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, produced the biggest win at Anfield in their club records as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in eleven matches in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was once more unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and made no excuses.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Nottingham Forest,” stated the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to examine myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a match. Before I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Of course there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always considering: ‘In which areas can we do better, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with sufficient reasons for us to have the results we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

The team's performance fell apart as the coach made several offensive substitutions when pursuing the match. “It was the identical on the road at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive home Premier League games by Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

The manager commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the opening 30 minutes of the match. I did not witness us creating so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the entire season, and the initial occasion they arrived in our box they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant side and were capable to create opportunities. Lately it is nearly consistently that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we allow find the net.”