Liverpool: Arne Slot's side in complete disarray after six Premier League defeats in seven - his next move is crucial

Liverpool

Analysing some of the biggest talking points from the latest round of Premier League matches, as Liverpool sink to new lows after a heavy home defeat to Nottingham Forest - what are the changes Arne Slot needs to make to reverse bruising downturn?

The blueprint was established weeks ago. Hit Liverpool with direct, long balls, bypass their press and win the odd set-play or two, and the reigning champions are there for the taking. So it proved again against Nottingham Forest.

Arne Slot's side have lost half of their 12 Premier League games this season and are 11th in the table. It's exactly where they deserve to be. Games had been lost to Crystal Palace and Chelsea before the trend became a pattern, but it was a 2-1 loss to Manchester United in October where flaws were exposed in the most systematic sense.

Liverpool lost a goal within the first minute as Bryan Mbeumo ran off the back of Virgil van Dijk, punching through the heart of a lost and leggy defence. Amad Diallo was freed with long pass after long pass. Before Harry Maguire then struck the winner late from the second phase of a set-piece. We've seen it all before and again since.

And the situation has the potential to get worse before it gets better. Based on xPts - a metric used to estimate the number of points a team should have based on quality of chances created and conceded - Liverpool's tally of 18, 13 fewer than this stage last year, is spot on.

But they overachieved by roughly seven points when winning all five of their opening games with dramatic, often lucky, late goals. From their seven league outings since they have earned just three when data suggests they should have closer to 10.

Underachievement is rife from back to front. This can no longer generously be deemed a blip. It's been some 33 years since Liverpool shipped this many goals (20) in their opening 12 games. Forest landed their biggest margin of victory at Anfield in their club's history at the weekend, under the guidance of a so-called 'defensive coach' in Sean Dyche.

The top end doesn't offer much solace, either. Bournemouth and Brighton have both scored more goals than Liverpool, which is no slight on either of those sides, only noted to illustrate the deficiencies of the league's most expensively assembled forward line.

Liverpool's strikers have contributed just three goals all season (all Hugo Ekitike). As a team, their conversion rate (9.78 per cent) ranks 15th. It's worse than Everton's. Again, no shade, included purely for contextual relevance. According to transfermarket, Everton's forward line (permanent players only) has a market value of £125m compared to Liverpool's £429m worth of talent. Output is not stacking up.

Federico Chiesa has averaged the most shots on target per 90 (1.29) of any Liverpool player and yet has only played 139 minutes - all from the bench. Obscurities can be observed everywhere. Virgil van Dijk's shooting accuracy (40 per cent) is incomprehensibly better than Mohamed Salah's (33 per cent). Of the 16 dribbles Salah attempted against Forest only four were successful.

Combined, the Egyptian and £125m-rated Alexander Isak have missed 10 big chances this season, albeit Salah is at least creating chances which cannot be said of the latter.

Isak's form is a big issue. Not only is he not scoring, he's also not competing, losing every one of the seven duels he contested in defeat to Forest. He is the only Liverpool player in the Premier League era to end on the losing side in each of his first four starts. Performances will tell you that is for good reason.