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Liverpool's head coach declared he needed to “look at myself” following Liverpool endured a sixth defeat in seven English top-flight matches at home against Forest and insisted he would find a way from the title holders' poor run.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, delivered the largest victory at Anfield in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The British record signing, Alexander Isak, was once more unnoticeable and the home side contended Murillo’s first goal should have been ruled out for similar reasons to Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed effort against City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and made no excuses.

“Nobody wants to hear me now speaking about officiating calls if you lose 3-0 in your own stadium to Forest,” stated the Reds' boss. “I should examine myself initially and my team, but it demonstrates you how a score can change the flow of a game. Earlier I was just hoping for us to score a goal. Later we barely generated anything.

“Naturally there is a way out, especially 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 your abilities.

“I want to stress I am accountable 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 outcomes we have. That is not acceptable and I am to blame for that.”

Liverpool’s display fell apart as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when chasing the game. “It was the same away at Nottingham Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted the French defender off and brought on the Portuguese forward and he found the net immediately to equalize at 1-1. At that time it was courageous, now it’s likely stupid.”

The Anfield side last lost two successive at Anfield league fixtures against Nottingham Forest in the sixties. The most recent occasion they suffered back-to-back league games by a 3-0 margin was in the mid-60s.

Slot commented: “It was very bad. Competing at home, conceding 3-0 regardless of which team you face is a very, very bad result. Surprising if you look at the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so many chances in the opening 30 minutes perhaps the entire campaign, and the initial occasion they entered in our box they scored.

“It wasn’t against Manchester City, but in every other game we have been the dominant team and were able to create chances. Recently it is almost consistently that we miss our opportunities and the attempts we concede find the net.”