Arne Slot handed most damning Liverpool verdict yet by UK media - 'Full-blown crisis'

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Liverpool, Saturday delivered perhaps the most worrying defeat of what has been a truly dismal couple of months.

The 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest leaves the Reds languishing in the bottom half of the Premier League table, having fallen to a sixth defeat in the last seven league games, and an eighth loss in the last 11 outings in all competitions.

Try as he might, Arne Slot simply cannot avoid the questions over his future that are getting louder with each game. The Liverpool boss still can’t find a way to turn things around with his underperforming players, but he needs to find a solution quickly.

As ever, the UK’s media was out in full force to watch the Reds’ latest capitulation at Anfield. Here’s what they had to say about Liverpool’s defeat to Forest…

Riath Al-Samarrai - Daily Mail

"It will come as little comfort to Arne Slot that a sizeable number of Liverpool’s followers had already walked away by the time his side were down by three. They had seen enough and, most damningly, they had seen it all before.

"When will this tailspin end? And does Slot have the nous to correct it? Those questions are growing in volume, aggression and urgency around a title defence of ever-diminishing returns.

"Their run now stands at six defeats in seven, but there are other data points and observations to cover how the mighty have fallen so far and fast.

"One of them concerns set-pieces – recent masters of the art, Liverpool now resemble the dopiest of apprentices, with nine conceded via dead-balls in the Premier League alone. Murillo sends his thanks.

"Then there’s the will. The sheer desire to fight. We saw none of that in the second goal, partially gifted to Nicola Savona by a defence that lacked the wit to track a Neco Williams run or the guts to mount a proper tackle on the same guy. Goodness, we shouldn’t be able to say that about a Liverpool side, but just watch the tape if you don’t believe it.

"Finally, where was the pride? Where was the resistance against a side who arrived with a little wind in their sails but only two teams beneath them prior to kick-off. By the time Nottingham Forest finished counter-punching their way to this mauling, they had recorded their biggest ever victory at Anfield and Liverpool were left processing a negative goal difference. The chorus of boos that sent them off the field was the only thing they deserved all evening."

Paul Joyce - The Times

"Liverpool’s season continues to plumb new depths and the charge sheet grows longer by the week.

"It is no longer simply the case that they have forgotten how to defend as shown by each of the three goals with which Nottingham Forest posted their biggest ever win at Anfield.

"They are a team which has lost all capacity to respond.

"This was the sixth time Liverpool have fallen behind in a Premier League game this term and the sixth occasion they have slipped to defeat. In many ways, the beating Forest inflicted here was the most damning of all given their vaunted rivals could not even muster the prospect of a meaningful fightback once they had conceded from a set piece once again.

"Long before the end, Slot stood motionless in his technical area, his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking utterly bereft. He looked like someone who had not seen this coming and yet all the deficiencies that have characterised Liverpool’s performances were evident again."

Richard Jolly - The Independent

"Forest kicked off in the relegation zone and without a clean sheet in 19 Premier League matches. Liverpool ended up defeated and demolished. They have the most expensive striker in the history of English football; despite – some might say, because of – that, they drew a blank.

"For the first time in two and a half years, Liverpool have failed to score in consecutive games. For the first time since April 1965, they have lost successive league matches by three goals. More recently, it has been a stunning, staggering decline over the last two months. This was an eighth defeat in 11 outings, and a sixth in seven in the Premier League. Before then, it would have seemed utterly implausible that Liverpool would only take three points from a possible 21. A team who had a five-point lead at the summit now have a negative goal difference.

"There are, perhaps, too many unflattering facts to cite them all, just as too much went awry for Liverpool to claim a match hinged on an officiating decision; especially not when, of two major calls, one allowed Forest a goal and the other denied them a second."

Phil McNulty - BBC Sport

"Arne Slot is no longer trying to save Premier League champions Liverpool from a stumble.

"Saturday's Anfield horror show at the hands of Nottingham Forest was a headlong fall into the abyss.

"What most generously believed was a blip, based on the compelling evidence of Slot's first title-winning campaign last season, is now a full-blown crisis for Liverpool and their beleaguered head coach.

"Chairman Tom Werner was at Anfield to witness a 3-0 loss to impressive Forest thanks to a performance as poor as anything seen at home in recent years.

"No-one can suggest Slot's job is in immediate danger after his deeds following his succession to Jurgen Klopp, but such is this game's brutality that he is now under serious pressure to turn the tide that threatens to engulf Anfield.

"Liverpool's manager, whoever it is, is always under pressure to win games. He is under even greater pressure and scrutiny when he loses six Premier League games out of seven. This is as many as in their previous 58.

"They have lost two of their past three home league games, as many as in the previous 53.

"The cloak of invincibility that Liverpool carried last season has been replaced by a soft - very soft - underbelly. And it has been there since the start of the season."