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Liverpool's head coach stated he had to “look at myself” following the Reds endured a 6th loss in seven English top-flight games on their own turf against Forest and insisted he would discover a solution out of the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop before kick off, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as Liverpool fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in all competitions. The British record signing, the Swedish striker, was again anonymous and Liverpool argued Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for comparable grounds to the captain's disallowed effort against Manchester City before the national team pause. But the manager admitted the responsibility rested with him and offered no alibis.

“Nobody wants to listen to me now talking about refereeing decisions if you lose 3-0 at home to Nottingham Forest,” said the Reds' boss. “I should look at myself first and my team, but it does show you how a goal can alter the momentum of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a strike. Afterwards we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or lose when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we improve, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from questioning your abilities.

“I want to emphasise I am responsible for the current defeats. You are responsible when you are winning but also liable when you are defeated. I can never provide enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is not good enough and I am responsible for that.”

Liverpool’s display unravelled as Slot introduced multiple attacking substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the same away at Forest last season,” he remarked. “I took Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] out and put on [Diogo] Jota and he scored immediately to make it 1-1. Then it was courageous, now it’s probably unwise.”

The Anfield side previously were defeated in two successive home league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in 1963. The last time they suffered back-to-back top-flight matches by a three-goal margin was in 1965.

Slot said: “It was very bad. Competing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you encounter is a very, very bad outcome. Surprising if you consider the first half-hour of the game. I haven’t seen us creating so much in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the whole campaign, and the initial occasion they arrived in our penalty area they scored.

“It did not happen against Manchester City, but in every other fixture we have been the dominant team and were able to generate opportunities. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our chances and the ones we allow go in.”