Liverpool fans, look away now. What started as a few shaky performances has spiraled into a full-blown crisis, culminating in a humiliating 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest at Anfield. Just last season, Arne Slot led the Reds to a Premier League title, but now his team looks a shadow of its former self, tumbling “headlong into the abyss.”
Chairman Tom Werner watched on as a once-unbeatable Liverpool delivered one of their worst home performances in years. Slot himself admitted, “Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad result.” While his job isn’t immediately on the line after last season’s heroics, the pressure is immense. Losing six of their last seven Premier League games – as many as in the previous 58 – is simply unthinkable for a club of Liverpool’s stature.
The “cloak of invincibility” has vanished, replaced by a soft underbelly that’s been exposed since day one. Despite a massive £450m spending spree, new signings like Alexander Isak, a £125m British record, have struggled to make an impact, with Isak looking “peripheral, lightweight, lost” against Forest. Even key players seem to have lost their spark.
The statistics are damning: losing six of their first 12 games as champions, a first since 2014-15, and losing back-to-back league games by three or more goals for the first time since 1965. Conceding simple goals from set-pieces, and a lack of heart and intensity – once hallmarks of this team – are now glaring weaknesses.
Anfield, usually a fortress of belief, was filled with a “subdued mood of resignation” as fans headed for the exits early. The dream of retaining the title is gone, replaced by a desperate fight for a Champions League spot. Slot needs to find answers, and fast, before this “major problem” becomes an unrecoverable disaster.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c3w76g63n7lo
