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Arne Slot stated he needed to “examine my own performance” after the Reds suffered a sixth loss in seven English top-flight games at home to Nottingham Forest and insisted he would find a solution from the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, in the relegation zone before kick off, delivered the biggest victory at Anfield in their club records as Liverpool fell to an 8th defeat in eleven fixtures in all competitions. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s chalked-off goal versus Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager conceded the responsibility stopped with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wishes to listen to me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you are defeated 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should examine my own role first and my squad, but it does show you how a goal can change the momentum of a match. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you triumph or lose when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, where can we make changes?’ but that is something else from questioning yourself.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are answerable when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not come up with sufficient excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am to blame for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach introduced several attacking substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Nottingham Forest last season,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, currently it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side last lost back-to-back at Anfield league games against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The most recent occasion they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was extremely poor. Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a terrible result. Surprising if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the initial 30 minutes maybe the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

“It did not happen at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were capable to generate chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our opportunities and the ones we concede go in.”