Ian Doyle with the verdict on Liverpool's dreadful Premier League 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon
Liverpool's Dutch manager Arne Slot reacts during the English Premier League football match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at Anfield in Liverpool, north west England on November 22, 2025. (Photo by Darren Staples / AFP via Getty Images) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE. No use with unauthorized audio, video, data, fixture lists, club/league logos or 'live' services. Online in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No video emulation. Social media in-match use limited to 120 images. An additional 40 images may be used in extra time. No use in betting publications, games or single club/league/player publications. /
Arne Slot reacts during his Liverpool side's 3-0 home loss to Nottingham Forest
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When Liverpool were beaten at home by Nottingham Forest last season, the defeat became a running joke among Reds supporters as their team sauntered to a dominant Premier League title triumph. Nobody of an Anfield persuasion will be laughing now, though, after another reverse against Forest highlighted the many problems with which Arne Slot simply has no option but to address immediately.
With Liverpool chairman Tom Werner watching from the directors’ box, this was precisely the wrong time for Liverpool to post one of their worst home performances in a very, very long time.
Statistically this dreadful 3-0 reverse matched the heaviest Anfield defeat in the Premier League era, echoing the 4-1 losses to Chelsea in 2005 and Manchester City in 2021.
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But those were against teams who had recently been Premier League champions. This, with the greatest respect, was against a Forest team who started the day in the relegation zone and came with a textbook Sean Dyche gameplan that even those with only a cursory knowledge of football would have anticipated.
Defend deep. Keep players behind the ball. Play on the counter-attack. And then make the most of any set-pieces that fall your way.
Yet it was comfortably far too much for Liverpool to handle. As it has been for much of the last two months, this a sixth league defeat in seven, an eighth loss in 11 in all competitions.
That’s not just terrible form. That’s relegation form, the Reds nearer the drop zone than runaway leaders Arsenal.
Only three teams – West Ham United, Wolves and Burnley – have shipped more goals than the 20 Liverpool have leaked in their opening 12 Premier League games, their worst such record since 1992. It was also the first time since 1965 the Reds have lost back-to-back league matches by a margin of three or more.
But the real worry probably isn’t the margin of the defeat, as horrible as it looks. Slot’s biggest concern will be the complete lack of reaction from his team having gone behind to a controversial opener from Murillo on 33 minutes, the goal eventually allowed after a lengthy VAR check despite Dan Ndoye standing in an offside position in front of Alisson Becker.
There were more than a few echoes of the goal Virgil van Dijk saw disallowed at Manchester City a fortnight ago, another contentious decision at a key juncture in the game.
But if the opener again underlined how fortune has certainly not favoured Liverpool since they lifted the Premier League title in May, that is absolutely no excuse for what came next.
The Reds were shockingly bad, a meek performance in the final hour among the most unforgivable of recent times.
Yes, there are the usual caveats of an overall lack of energy post-international break. Liverpool, though, offered no real convincing argument they would ever get back into the game once they fell behind, continuing their trend of taking precisely zero points from losing positions this season.
Mohamed Salah aside, the attacking threat was minimal. Florian Wirtz, while heavily scrutinised since moving to Anfield in the summer, was a major miss with his creativity. And then there was Alexander Isak.
Making his first Premier League start in more than a month, Isak touched the ball once in the opening quarter of the game. Once.
By the time he was hooked midway through the second half, he’d moved on to 15. Teenager Rio Ngumoha had only one fewer and he only came on in the 78th minute.
Poor Isak. Not since 1906 has a player been on the losing side in his first four top-flight starts for Liverpool, and while his team-mates aren’t blameless in giving the player better service, the striker simply needs to do more. After all, £125million is a lot of money.
But there are issues right through the team. The enforced absences of Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong, along with the curious resistance to starting Joe Gomez, meant Slot conjured up a mismatch of Dominik Szoboszlai returning to right-back while Curtis Jones came into a slightly reshuffled midfield that appeared more 4-3-3 than 4-2-3-1.
All that did was strip the engine room of its most influential and combative figure this season, with Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch then both way off their best.
Indeed, Liverpool fans weren’t happy when Cody Gakpo and Gravenberch both appeared to pull out of challenges, the former allowing Murillo to amble forward and test Alisson from range first half. That changed the mood inside the stadium with Forest going ahead a few minutes later.
To think Liverpool actually started the game reasonably enough, Mac Allister having a goalbound shot brilliantly headed clear by Elliot Anderson while Forest were compelled to make a raft of desperate blocks.
But the game was effectively over when Liverpool were caught napping at the start of the second half and Nicolo Savona turned in a cross from former Reds defender Neco Williams.
Slot subsequently played some of his trademark moves – hauling off the hapless Ibrahima Konate at 2-0 down and throwing on attacking players – but, as as increasingly been the case this term, they made little difference, with Morgan Gibbs-White netting Forest’s third late on.
The chants of “You’re getting sacked in the morning” aimed at the Dutchman by opposing supporters with each defeat have previously been laughed off given the credit in the bank from last season’s title success.
Slot isn’t in danger just yet. But another repeat of this utterly abject surrender and questions will have to be asked among the Anfield hierarchy. This simply cannot go on.