Liverpool have spent £450 million on new contracts in the summer of 2025 to consolidate their dominance in English football after winning their 20th national championship last season.
But after 12 chaotic matches on the journey to defend the title, Arne Slot's team is on track to become the worst reigning Premier League champions in history.
Once hailed as the perfect successor to Jurgen Klopp after helping Liverpool transition smoothly to a new era with little turmoil last season, Slot is now facing a completely different challenge.
The 47-year-old strategist has been struggling, to the point that his team is facing the risk of making history in a way no one wants.
Mohamed Salah has lost his scoring form, while his summer blockbuster signings - Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, each worth more than £100 million - are all becoming expensive failed deals.
Ibrahima Konate has become a symbol of fragility in defense, in the context of Liverpool conceding more goals than they create.
The defending champions' invincible form has been broken, even at Anfield. The 0-3 home loss to Nottingham Forest marked the first time Liverpool have lost 2 consecutive matches by 3 goals since 1965. This was their sixth defeat in seven rounds - a series of poor results starting from September 27 - causing them to drop from the top to 11th in the rankings.
Only Jose Mourinho's Chelsea - the 2014-2015 champion - have had a worse title defence, with 7 defeats in the opening 12 matches. That disappointing run of results saw Mourinho sacked in December 2015, just seven months after taking the Blues to the top of the Premier League for the third time.
Blackburn Rovers (champion 1994-1995) and Leicester City (2015-2016) are two other teams that have lost 6 matches in the first 12 rounds as defending champions.
If Blackburn can recover and finish the 1995-1966 season in seventh place, Leicester - after sacking coach Claudio Ranieri in February 2017, just a few months after a historic feat - will finish the season in 12th place.
That is the lowest ranking ever recorded for a Premier League champions, two places below Chelsea a season before.
Is Liverpool aiming for a disastrous end like Leicester, finishing the season in the bottom half of the rankings? Or can Arne Slot promptly stop the decline and get the team back on track to keep the hope of a successful season on the rise?
All signs point to the Reds being able to end their disappointing run and return to the top four race. But if football had been run so simply, collectives like Chelsea, Blackburn or Leicester would not have had to go through a miserable decline in the season to defend the title. The pressure now weighs on Arne Slot, forcing him to quickly turn things around to avoid getting into that car accident.
"Of course there is a way out, especially when we have quality players. But I want to emphasize that I have to take responsibility for the recent losses.
When you win, you receive compliments, but when you lose, you have to take responsibility. I could never give enough reasons to justify the current situation. It's all good enough to be in the long run, and the responsibility lies with me," said Arne Slot after the defeat to Forest.
Captain Virgil van Dijk gave a deeper look into the cause of this poor run of results. He believes that the players themselves must also self-examine and is not sure whether all teammates are giving their all.
"As champions, we can't fall into the current situation, but it's the truth. What should we do? We will try to turn things around and that must be the common spirit of the whole team.
But the most important thing for me is that everyone takes responsibility. Do they all do that? I don't know. But that is a must" - the Dutch midfielder shared.
