LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – NOVEMBER 22: Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, reacts prior to the Premier League match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Anfield on November 22, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
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On most occasions, the blame for faltering title defences lies squarely at the players’ door.
Let’s not get things twisted, the manager is nearly always the person who pays the price.
However, whether it was Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea in 2015 or Claudio Ranieri with Leicester City a year later, pointing the finger at a coach alone is to almost always overlook the faltering determination and desire levels that emerge in the previous season’s champions after the trophy celebrations die down.
Unlike other less competitive divisions, the Premier League offers no room for complacency. A weak start or midseason collapse will be punished and harshly so.
It is a cold, hard truth being learned right now by Liverpool, whose sudden and unexpected demise has put them well off the pace.
The loss of form is so dramatic that Nottingham Forest, a club that has already burned through two managers this season, turns up at the home of the champions and smells blood.
Nevertheless, the 0-3 collapse was remarkable. There was no rally or late push for the points, just a dismal defeat to a team that seemed to want it more.
Speaking postgame, manager Arne Slot was reduced to pontificating over the degree of awfulness on display from his side.
“How bad [the result is], that is difficult to measure, but it was very bad of course,” he said.
“Playing at home, losing 3-0, no matter which team you face is, of course, a very, very, very bad result.
“Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game [because] in my opinion [it was] a good start from us. [I] haven’t seen us creating so much in the first half-hour of a game maybe throughout the whole season.
“I’m not sure because I don’t remember every single game now, but we were able to create a lot.
“The first time they arrived in our box, they scored a goal and it’s a very difficult cocktail to drink, or to have, if you miss out on your own chances and almost every time you concede one, the ball goes in.”
It might be expected that Slot would try and sprinkle some rays of light into the distinctly cloudy picture.
But he knows deep down the pressure falls on him to change course.
“It is my responsibility. If we win or lose, it is my responsibility,” he added.
“But what I also see is the team and, by the way, our fans as well stay until the end, support the team until the end and the players keep on trying until the end.
“Like I said, lately it is almost constantly that we miss our chances and then ones go in that we concede, but that will never continue throughout the whole season. We need to have that moment of energy of scoring a goal.
“If you are playing well and you go 1-0 up, the other team feels, ‘We’ve played half an hour now and we are 1-0 down and we’ve hardy seen the ball…’ The opposite thing happened – they got a big, big, big energy boost from scoring the 1-0. I see a lot of things where in a normal situation the result would have been different, but we are now in a difficult situation and then you need to do even more to get your results than when things go in your favour.”
Throughout Liverpool’s rotten run of form, Slot has frequently cited bad luck as a factor.
And while there is some case to be made for some things not falling in the Reds’ favor, it simply isn’t an excuse that cuts it.
Unlike Mourinho or Ranieri, Slot does not got a team that is lacking improvement post-title win.
Players have been sold, but none who were essential and the strengthening of a title-winning side the club has embarked on is unprecedented.
Therefore, it falls to the manager to deliver with an improved squad.
For Slot, the issue is more acute because, although he won the league last season, it was with almost no investment in the playing squad. The characterization is that he triumphed, but with his predecessor, Jürgen Klopp’s team.
Now he has signed a raft of players, performances have fallen off a cliff, shining the spotlight squarely on him, the longer the bad run continues.
As ex-Manchester United forward-turned-pundit Wayne Rooney pointed out on the BBC, there is also the additional problem that Klopp’s specter still looms large at Anfield.
“The big thing is when he has a run of results like this, Klopp’s name keeps getting brought up,” he added.
“It’s a bit like the presence with Sir Alex Ferguson. For instance, when David Moyes came in [at Manchester United] and [Louis] Van Gaal, Fergie’s name would always get brought up.
“With Slot, Klopp keeps getting brought up. ‘He’s not Jürgen Klopp, he’s not as good as Jürgen Klopp.'”
Demonstrating why he occupies the pundit’s sofa rather than the manager’s bench, the Liverpudlian’s suggestion for Slot is dramatic: drop the club’s best player, Mohamed Salah.
“If I was Slot, I’d try and make a big decision just so it has an impact on the rest of the team,” said Rooney on his podcast.
“Salah is not helping them defensively.
“If you’re one of the players who they’ve signed and you’re on the bench and you’ve seen him not running – and again he’s a club legend and everything he’s done for the club – but if you’re on the bench, then what message does that send to you?”
The insipid way Liverpool fell to a 0-3 defeat to Nottingham Forest was not the fault of Mohamed Salah. His performances haven’t been too bad on this shambolic run, but Slot will need to think of some solution, radical or otherwise, to address the terrible run of form.