How the national media reacted to Liverpool's 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot reacts during the Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at Anfield on November 22 2025
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot reacts during the Premier League match against Nottingham Forest at Anfield on November 22 2025
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Talk about a year of two halves. Liverpool slumped to yet another miserable defeat with a dismal 3-0 Premier League reverse at home to lowly Nottingham Forest on Saturday afternoon.
A controversial Murillo opener was added to in the second half by goals from Nicolo Savona and Morgan Gibbs-White to earn the Tricky Trees an easy victory.
It ensured another intense few days of speculation over where things are going wrong for the Premier League champions. And while the ECHO was in attendance and provided our usual level of coverage, here's how the national media viewed a negative result for Arne Slot's side.
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Paul Joyce, formerly of this parish, pointed out in The Times about how Slot appeared to run out of ideas during the closing stages.
"Long before the end, Slot stood motionless in his technical area, his hands stuffed in his pockets, looking utterly bereft," he pens. "He looked like someone who had not seen this coming and yet all the deficiencies that have characterised Liverpool’s performances were evident again.
"The international break had offered Slot an opportunity to assess Liverpool’s dip in fortune and he seemed bullish that an improvement was around the corner notwithstanding injuries. Reality would bite hard.
"Alisson was back in goal for the first time since September 30 due to a hamstring injury, but the sight of him passing straight into touch having expected Milos Kerkez to be there merely illustrated the on-pitch difficulties that Slot’s side continue to experience."
Andy Hunter, another ex-ECHO employee, didn't hold back in The Guardian when assessing the Reds' rubbishness.
"Liverpool, by contrast, dissolved into a mess as they slipped to an eighth defeat in 11 matches, a sixth loss in seven Premier League games, and into the bottom half of the table," he scribes.
"Poor at set pieces, again, ineffective up front, again, with Alexander Isak withdrawn after 68 anonymous minutes, and defensively weak, they toiled in all departments to suffer a 3-0 defeat for the second game in succession. The last time Liverpool lost back-to-back league games by a three-goal margin was 1965.
"Memories of a strong first 30 minutes by Slot’s side, when Elliot Anderson made a brilliant headed block to deny Alexis Mac Allister on his goalline, were long gone by the time Gibbs-White put the game beyond doubt."
Writing in the Daily Mail, Riath Al-Samarrai questioned whether the Liverpool players have the heart for a battle any more.
"Then there’s the will," he opines. "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."
Finally, the erudite Richard Jolly wrote in The Independent pointed to the ineffectiveness of Alexander Isak and that the opposition were hardly stellar.
"Forest kicked off in the relegation zone and without a clean sheet in 19 Premier League matches," he says. "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."