Martin Keown delivered a withering assessment of Liverpool after the latest hammer blow during a crushing season for the Reds.
Less than six months after Arne Slot’s team jubilantly paraded the Premier League trophy around Anfield amid a carnival atmosphere, they now find themselves in the bottom half of the table after a harrowing 3-0 humbling at home by Nottingham Forest, who began the day in 19th place.
It’s now six defeats in seven top-flight games for the defending champions, and although there was controversy around the opening goal for Murillo, the manner in which the Merseysiders effectively gave up after going 2-0 down early in the second half was demoralising.
Keown: ‘Wheels are coming off’ for Slot and Liverpool
Liverpool began the season as many people’s favourites for the title, especially after a vast summer spend in the transfer market, but Keown sounded some uncomfortable home truths for Kopites after today’s defeat.
Speaking on BBC Sport‘s Final Score, the former Arsenal defender said: “We have to give credit to Forest for what they are doing, but the wheels are coming off now for Arne Slot.
“Obviously it was Jurgen Klopp’s team and he has tried to come in and make changes, but he has spent £450m on players and they are going backwards.”
Liverpool players look shellshocked during the defeat to Nottingham Forest
(Photo by Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
Liverpool have gotten worse despite spendthrift summer
Of all the defeats that Liverpool have suffered this season, this was probably the most disspiriting of the lot. The painful reality is that Forest didn’t need to be anything special to dismantle the home side, who produced nothing in terms of a response to going behind.
It’s not as if the players who were brought in during the summer are bad footballers – we’ve seen in previous years what the likes of Alexander Isak and Milos Kerkez are capable of – but there’s no escaping that the team has rapidly disimproved despite all the money which was spent during the summer.
It goes without saying that it’s been an extremely hard few months for the LFC squad after the tragic death of Diogo Jota in July – Andy Robertson’s emotional tribute to his former teammate in midweek after Scotland qualified for the World Cup laid bare the pain which is still being felt within the camp.
Even with that unquestionably having an impact, though, Liverpool’s lack of fight in (comparatively trivial) moments of on-field adversity is alarming for Slot, who’ll undoubtedly come under wider public scrutiny after today’s miserable result.
We’re not suggesting for a minute that the head coach’s job should be in danger, but things are getting worse before they get better for a team who are massively underperforming for the quality that they possess.
We’ll continue to support this group of players no matter what, but the short-term outlook at Anfield is frightening bleak.