Liverpool 'called Arne Slot replacement' on the phone while he watched Premier League game

Gary McAllister was called to accept an award on behalf of Arne Slot during Leeds United's match against Aston Villa. Despite being named the Northern Football Writers' Association manager of the year for his efforts last season, Slot chose not to attend Sunday's ceremony.

Instead, McAllister was dispatched to receive the award on the Dutchman's behalf at short notice. As per the Daily Mail, Slot confirmed he would not be attending the ceremony at 4pm on Sunday, with McAllister getting a call in the middle of Leeds' Premier League match with Aston Villa at Elland Road. At the event, McAllister - who is a club ambassador for Liverpool - relayed Slot's apologies for his absence, as well as a brief message from the 47-year-old expressing his extreme pride at winning the accolade.

It comes after Slot oversaw a 3-0 defeat for Liverpool at the hands of Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The Reds returned to Premier League action at Anfield hoping to reverse a poor run of form ahead of the two-week international break.

However, what followed was further disappointment for the Premier League-winning manager. Murillo broke the deadlock for the away side in cagey circumstances 33 minutes into the encounter, with his effort from the heart of the penalty area scrutinised by VAR due to Dan Ndoye appearing to block Alisson Becker's view whilst in an offside position.

Following examination, match officials determined that Ndoye had not interfered with the goalkeeper's line of sight, permitting the goal to be awarded. The Premier League Match Centre confirmed on X: "The referee's call of goal was checked and confirmed by VAR - with it deemed that Ndoye was not in the line of vision of Allison and did not make an action that impacted an opponent."

Igor Jesus appeared to extend the advantage to 2-0 shortly afterwards, though his finish was eventually disallowed for handball moments before he converted. Forest didn't require long to establish their two-goal cushion, however.

Almost straight after half-time, Nicolo Savona found the target for Sean Dyche's outfit, before Morgan Gibbs-White put the result beyond doubt with just over 10 minutes remaining. During his post-match media briefing, Slot emphasised that Liverpool's failure to capitalise on first-half opportunities proved decisive.

He said: "How bad is difficult to measure, but it was very bad, of course. Playing at home, losing 3-0, no matter which team you face, is of course a very, very, very bad result. Unexpected if you look at the first half-hour of the game.

"In my opinion, a good start from us. Haven't seen us creating so much in the first half-hour of a game maybe throughout the whole season - I'm not sure because I don't remember every single game now, but we were able to create a lot.

"And the first time they arrived in our box, they scored a goal and it's a very difficult cocktail to drink, or to have. If you miss out on your own chances, then almost every time you concede one the ball goes in."

When questioned whether he believes he can guide Liverpool out of their present difficulties, he responded: "It's my responsibility. Win or lose, it's my responsibility. But what I also I see is that the team, and our fans as well, stay until the end, support until the end, and the players keep on trying until the end.

"And what I also see today, and that wasn't at [Manchester] City - but at City we were not the only team that struggled in the first-half - but in every other game we've played, we've been the dominant team and we were able to create chances. Like I said, lately it's almost constantly that we miss our chances and the ones go in that we concede, but that will never continue throughout the whole season.

"But we need to have that moment of energy of scoring a goal. If you are playing well and you go 1-0 up then the other team feels like, 'We've played here half and hour now and we're 1-0 down, and we've hardly seen the ball.' But the opposite thing happened, they got a big, big, big energy boost from scoring 1-0.

"I see a lot of things where in a 'normal' situation the result would have been different, but we are now in a difficult situation and then you need to do even more to get your results in than when things are going in your favour."

After Saturday's outcome, Liverpool find themselves stuck in 11th place in the Premier League table, trailing league-toppers Arsenal by 11 points. The Reds have managed just one victory from their last five top-flight matches.