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Liverpool humiliation was unacceptable - Arne Slot must now prove himself again

Whatever Arne Slot's message is to his players before games, it is not being listened to and it is time for the Liverpool boss to earn his stripes now. Eight defeats in 11 games and losing six out of seven in the Premier League means we are going over old ground at this point but we remain far too easy to play against and ultimately beat.

Defeats like the one at Manchester City can happen; they are a fantastic side and on their day, at home, most will struggle to live with them, as tough as it was to take. But Nottingham Forest at Anfield? That is a different beast and it simply isn't acceptable to lose 3-0. To be humbled and humiliated like that, it simply can't happen.

I've spoken in recent weeks about Liverpool needing to score twos and threes to get anything from a game and they don't look like a coherent attacking team for that to be possible at the moment.

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Teams are bullying them and opposition sides now have a catalogue to look through labelled 'How to Beat Liverpool'. They are simply following those guidelines and coming away with the points. Nottingham Forest were second to bottom on Saturday afternoon. How easy they came away with the points is a major concern.

Liverpool started well enough and on another day if that big chance for Alexis Mac Allister goes in then it might have been much more comfortable but once Forest took the lead, you never fancied the Premier League champions, at home, to get back into it. There's a real vulnerability there and teams are sensing that.

You look at the recent victories against Real Madrid and Aston Villa - who shot themselves in the foot for both Liverpool goals - and you can see that Slot's team are okay against sides who like to get their foot on the ball and play.

It's the other side of the game where the Reds are coming unstuck now and Sean Dyche read that perfectly in his analysis before the game. I have to say the lad Elliot Anderson was amazing for Forest, he looks a real player now and an England international for years to come.

This is not good for Slot and while there has been some chatter about his future, I am just hoping he can turn it around first before that becomes a serious debate. It's a fresh challenge for him, proving he can inspire the players to better performances and results.

We were all blown away by what Slot was able to do last year but this is different. It's hard to watch and it is difficult to see it getting better overnight. There's no continuity or consistency.

This is his team now, the club have spent an eye-watering amount to back him in the transfer window and now it is on him to coach the players into form because we know these are top-quality players. The ones who have won the lot at Liverpool have proven that and there wasn't any negativity when the transfer window closed either with who was brought in.

Having said that, I do feel Arne was a bit unlucky that Marc Guehi wasn't brought in. A deal looked done and dusted before Crystal Palace pulled the plug to keep their captain and there's no doubt the England defender would have helped keep things tighter than it has been at the back this season.

Slot has also been hampered by young Giovanni Leoni getting a season-ending injury on his debut in the Carabao Cup in September.

But look, this is where Slot now proves himself again as a top coach because the pressure is on and it hasn't been good enough at Liverpool Football Club in recent months.

Isak not getting the service

It was another quiet afternoon for Alexander Isak at Anfield with the striker having zero impact on the game before he was withdrawn in the second half.

For a British-record fee of £125m it's fair to demand more than just 15 touches across 68 minutes or so but as a fully paid-up member of the striker's union, I have to say he isn't getting the service.

I owe so much to the likes of John Barnes and all the other great players I played alongside for the supply line that came my way but Isak isn't getting any of that at the moment.

There's a creativity dearth at the moment, which is a worry when you think of how much has been spent, and Isak isn't able to get up and running as a result. We saw how deadly he can be when the right passes are played into him but we've seen nothing of that yet as a Liverpool player.

He is feeding off scraps, so it is difficult to judge him. The price tag is something that will get spoken about but even the best players can't score if they don't get the ball.

As a result, you can see the confidence levels have taken a battering and it was no surprise to see him substituted in the second half, even with Liverpool needing a goal or two.

He has shown during his time at Newcastle that he is a top striker and I will back him to eventually come good but nothing is coming his way. They need to figure out how best to make it work because he has come in for a king's ransom, so it has to pay dividends. There's no alternative.

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