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Arne Slot declared he needed to “examine my own performance” after Liverpool endured a 6th loss in seven Premier League matches at home to Nottingham Forest and affirmed he would find a solution from the champions’ slump.

Nottingham Forest, fighting against the drop prior to the match, produced the largest victory at Liverpool's stadium in their history as the Merseyside club fell to an eighth defeat in 11 fixtures in every tournament. The most expensive domestic acquisition, the Swedish striker, was again unnoticeable and the home side argued Murillo’s opener ought to have been ruled out for similar reasons to the captain's disallowed effort versus Manchester City prior to the national team pause. But Slot conceded the buck rested with him and offered no alibis.

“No one wishes to listen to me now talking about officiating calls if you are defeated 3-0 at home to Forest,” said the Liverpool head coach. “I ought to look at myself first and my squad, but it does show you how a score can alter the flow of a game. Before I was just waiting for us to score a strike. Later we hardly generated any chances.

“Of course there is a path forward, particularly with the quality footballers we have. No matter if you win or are beaten when you reflect you are always thinking: ‘Where can we do better, where can we adjust?’ but that is different from doubting your abilities.

“I wish to stress I am accountable for the present losses. You are responsible when you are winning but also responsible when you are losing. I can never come up with enough excuses for us to have the results we have. That is far from good enough and I am responsible for that.”

The team's display unravelled as the coach introduced multiple offensive substitutions when pursuing the game. “It was the same on the road at Forest the previous campaign,” he said. “I substituted Ibou [Ibrahima Konaté] off and put on the Portuguese forward and he found the net straight away to make it 1-1. At that time it was brave, currently it’s probably stupid.”

Liverpool previously were defeated in back-to-back at Anfield Premier League games against Forest in the sixties. The last time they suffered consecutive top-flight games by a three-goal scoreline was in 1965.

The manager said: “It was extremely poor. Playing on home soil, losing 3-0 no matter which opponent you encounter is a very, very bad result. Unexpected if you consider the first half-hour of the match. I haven’t seen us producing so much in the initial 30 minutes perhaps the whole season, and the first time they arrived in our box they found the back of the net.

“It wasn’t at City, but in all other fixture we have been the controlling side and were able to create chances. Lately it is nearly constantly that we fail to convert our chances and the attempts we concede go in.”