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Arne Slot stated he needed to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a 6th defeat in seven Premier League matches at home to Forest and insisted he would find a way from the champions’ poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the biggest win at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth loss in eleven fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, Alexander Isak, was again unnoticeable and Liverpool argued Murillo’s opener should 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 responsibility stopped with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wants to hear me now speaking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I should examine myself initially and my squad, but it demonstrates you how a goal can change the flow of a match. Earlier I was just waiting for us to net a goal. Later we hardly created anything.

“Naturally there is a path forward, especially with the talented footballers we have. Regardless if you triumph or are beaten when you look back you are always considering: ‘Where can we improve, in what aspects can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am responsible for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can not provide enough reasons for us to have the outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s performance fell apart as Slot introduced multiple attacking changes when pursuing the match. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was brave, currently it’s probably unwise.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in two successive at Anfield league fixtures by Forest in 1963. The last time they lost consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 regardless of which opponent you encounter is a terrible outcome. Unexpected if you consider the opening 30 minutes of the game. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the opening half-hour maybe the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling team and were able to create chances. Recently it is nearly consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we allow find the net.”