What’s Gone Wrong with Liverpool Under Arne Slot This Season?

As of 27 November 2025, the reigning Premier League champions Liverpool sit 12th in the table after just 12 matches — a staggering fall from grace. Six wins, six defeats in the league, only one point from the last 21 available, and a humiliating 0-3 home loss to relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest. In all competitions, the Reds have now lost nine of their last twelve games — including a catastrophic 1-4 home thrashing by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Tuesday night — and were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Crystal Palace. This is officially the worst start by a defending champion since the 2020/21 season, and Liverpool have now conceded three or more goals in three consecutive matches for the first time since September 1992.

A summer spend of roughly £500–600 m on players such as Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitiké, Jeremie Frimpong and others was supposed to usher in a new golden era under Arne Slot. Instead, it has produced chaos. The latest embarrassment against PSV — where defensive errors from Virgil van Dijk (handball penalty) and Ibrahima Konaté (allowing a clear run for the third goal) gifted the Dutch side a dominant victory — has left Slot under huge pressure. Here are the main reasons Liverpool have collapsed so spectacularly in 2025/26.

1. Defensive Fragility – A Complete Breakdown

Liverpool have already lost four league games — the same number they lost in the entire 2024/25 title-winning campaign. They are being carved open on the counter and are suddenly vulnerable from set pieces. The PSV rout exemplified this: Ivan Perišić scored a sixth-minute penalty after Van Dijk's handball, Guus Til nodded in the second from a pinpoint Mauro Júnior cross, and Couhaib Driouech added two more, including a stoppage-time clincher after Konaté's switch-off.

• Counter-attack goals conceded: 4 in the first 12 games (compared to just 2 all last season).
• Virgil van Dijk is having to do 11.3 defensive actions per 90 minutes (up from 8.1 last year) because the press is non-existent.
• Ibrahima Konaté has been labelled “the biggest problem” by Jamie Carragher for repeatedly switching off at crucial moments — as seen again against PSV, where he was subbed off after his error led to the third goal.
• New set-piece coach Aaron Briggs was brought in to modernise dead-ball situations; instead, Liverpool now concede cheap goals from corners and free-kicks while remaining toothless at the other end.

2. Tactical Identity Crisis

Slot’s attempt to shift Liverpool toward a possession-based, short-passing “Dutch” style has backfired in the physical Premier League. Teams like Brentford, Fulham and now PSV simply go long over the top of a high line that no longer presses aggressively. Against PSV, Joey Veerman's line-breaking passes (70 in the UCL this season, the most by any player) tore the midfield apart.

• The midfield is physically overrun. Forcing Florian Wirtz into a deeper role too soon has destroyed last season’s balance (Gravenberch – Mac Allister – Szoboszlai).
• Alexis Mac Allister is badly out of form, Dominik Szoboszlai is being played out of position on the wing, and Ryan Gravenberch looks exhausted.
• There is no Plan B. Substitutions feel like roulette rather than tactical adjustments, and Slot keeps picking the same under-performing XI — even after the PSV debacle, where trailing PSV fans chanted “always look on the bright side of life” in the closing stages.

3. Loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold Has Broken Build-Up Play

The departure of Trent to Real Madrid in the summer has left gaping holes. None of the current full-backs (Frimpong, Bradley, Kerkez) are natural playmakers from deep. Everything is funnelled through an overworked Van Dijk, making Liverpool predictable and easy to press — as PSV exploited with Junior's assist for Til's goal.

4. Attack Has Become Disjointed and Toothless

Mohamed Salah is carrying the entire creative burden but is receiving 30% fewer touches in dangerous areas than last season. New signings Isak (fitness issues), Ekitiké (injured) and Wirtz (not yet settled) have left the forward line looking like strangers. Cody Gakpo drifts in and out, the attack lacks bite. Liverpool's lone goal against PSV came from Szoboszlai tapping in after Gakpo's saved shot, but they created little else despite 60% possession.

5. Mental Collapse

One goal conceded and the team folds. Anfield has seen fans streaming out before full-time for the first time in years — and jeers rained down at the final whistle against PSV. Players look scared to take responsibility. Van Dijk admitted after the Forest defeat: “We are letting ourselves down physically and mentally.” Liverpool legend Steve Gerrard echoed this post-PSV, saying the Reds are not in a “crisis” yet but urging Slot to find solutions fast — especially with the emotional scar of Jota's passing still raw.

Key Numbers That Tell the Story

Is There Hope?

The board and sporting director Richard Hughes continue to back Slot publicly (“full confidence, no dressing-room issues”), and there is no suggestion of an imminent sacking. A strong Champions League run could still offer redemption, but this latest humiliation has put Liverpool's qualification in jeopardy — they now sit 10th in their group with just one win from four. In the league, they already trail leaders Arsenal by seven points with a vastly inferior goal difference.

Fans have started the #SlotOut campaign, yet many pundits believe the problems are bigger than the manager: a poorly balanced squad, the irreplaceable loss of Trent, and a group of players who have mentally checked out after years of over-achievement under Klopp.

Liverpool are no longer the relentless pressing machine that terrorised Europe. The question now is whether Arne Slot has the vision — and the time — to rebuild it, or whether 2025/26 will go down as the season the post-Klopp empire crumbled in record time.