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

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.