Arne Slot snubbed the Northern Football Writers’ Association awards dinner on Sunday evening following Liverpool’s humiliating home defeat to Nottingham Forest. The Merseyside giants suffered a 3-0 reverse as they ended the weekend 11 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Slot has endured a difficult second season at Anfield after guiding the Reds to title glory during his maiden campaign at the helm. Despite shelling out mega money to bring in a host of summer signings, Liverpool have lost six of their last seven Premier League matches. They find themselves 11th in the table and almost certainly have no chance of retaining the title. And their manager appears to be feeling the pressure.

Slot was due to be presented with the Northern Football Writers’ Association manager of the year award at the ceremony in Manchester.

But, according to the Daily Mail, the Dutchman pulled out of the event at 4pm, just hours before the ceremony began. And Liverpool instead sent club ambassador Gary McAllister to collect the award.

McAllister, who made 87 appearances for the Reds during a two-year spell at Anfield as a player between 2000 and 2002, had been at Elland Road to watch Leeds take on Aston Villa.

The Scot spent six years as a player at Leeds and also had a spell as Villa’s assistant manager.

And as he collected the award, McAllister shared Slot’s apologies and acknowledged that the former Feyenoord boss was “extremely proud” to have been recognised.

Liverpool fell behind just after the half-hour mark during their encounter with Forest as Murillo fired in following a corner. And the visitors doubled their advantage just after the break as Nicolo Savona struck from 10 yards. Morgan Gibbs-White then wrapped up the victory with a third goal late on.

And after the match, Slot admitted: “A big disappointment. When things go well, things don’t go well, it is always my responsibility.

“What you do see is that after we go 1-0 down, we do struggle – struggle in the sense that we don’t create as many chances. We try to pump them up, to give them the information they need to start the second half well, and immediately after the start we conceded the 2-0.

“That is again a big blow for us and a big boost of confidence for them. The players kept on trying – I cannot blame them on that – but it was very difficult for us to find an opening. And when we found an opening, they blocked every single shot we had.”