'Liverpool in full-blown crisis and Slot under severe pressure'

Arne Slot is no longer trying to save Premier League champions Liverpool from a stumble.

Saturday's Anfield horror show at the hands of Nottingham Forest was a headlong fall into the abyss.

What most generously believed was a blip, based on the compelling evidence of Slot's first title-winning campaign last season, is now a full-blown crisis for Liverpool and their beleaguered head coach.

Chairman Tom Werner was at Anfield to witness a 3-0 loss to impressive Forest thanks to a performance as poor as anything seen at home in recent years.

"How bad that is difficult to measure but it was very bad," said Slot. "Playing at home, losing 3-0 no matter which team you face is a very, very bad result."

No-one can suggest Slot's job is in immediate danger after his deeds following his succession to Jurgen Klopp, but such is this game's brutality that he is now under serious pressure to turn the tide that threatens to engulf Anfield.

Liverpool's manager, whoever it is, is always under pressure to win games. He is under even greater pressure and scrutiny when he loses six Premier League games out of seven. This is as many as in their previous 58.

They have lost two of their past three home league games, as many as in the previous 53.

The cloak of invincibility that Liverpool carried last season has been replaced by a soft - very soft - underbelly. And it has been there since the start of the season.

It takes some doing to spend £450m to make a Liverpool side that strolled to the title last season worse but, based on what has been produced so far, Slot and the club's recruitment team have achieved that feat.

Former Arsenal and England defender Martin Keown told BBC Sport: "Whether it's a crisis, I don't know.

"It's certainly a major problem for the manager to go six defeats from seven. Unthinkable.

"The wheels are coming off now for Arne Slot.

"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."

Slot told BBC Sport's Match of the Day: "Another big disappointment.

"We started off quite well for the first half an hour. We conceded the 1-0 and we weren't able to play the way we did in the first half hour.

"If things go well or things go bad, it's my responsibility.

"We weren't able to create enough. I tried to adjust a few things but it didn't work out."

Exhibit A for the scale of the current decline is Alexander Isak, pursued and finally signed from Newcastle United amid much acrimony for a British record fee of £125m.

He arrived ring rusty from his strike on Tyneside, then picked up a groin injury that put him on the sidelines. To say he has had a false start at Anfield is a masterpiece of understatement.

Slot gave Isak his chance here. If he did not exactly do nothing, he did next to it.

He was peripheral, lightweight, lost.

It was almost an act of mercy when Slot replaced Isak with Federico Chiesa after 68 minutes. Not a single eyebrow would have been raised inside Anfield had he been put out of his misery at half-time.