Why Arne Slot had to be sacked
Arne Slot needed to be replaced this summer. No Liverpool supporter should be delighting in his sacking. He delivered us a league title, he led the club with great dignity in a couple of the toughest moments in our history and he faced a complex set of circumstances going into the season. The loss of Diogo Jota and the huge churn within the squad meant that success was never a given this season, and so it proved. Not everything that went wrong was Arne Slot's fault, far from it. There are several others at Liverpool who have had equally miserable seasons, both within the playing staff and behind the scenes. Time will tell whether the club is heading in the right direction. Despite all that, all of the mitigating circumstances, letting Slot go yesterday was the right decision.
The last couple of months of the season were a disaster for the manager and his reputation with the supporters. Liverpool bowed out of the Champions League with a whimper, albeit against the best team in Europe. The Reds capitulated at the Etihad in the FA Cup putting in one of the most pathetic, resigned performances in recent memory. On the back of a league title and £450m worth of signings, no trophies and Champions League qualification is the absolute minimum and it was only just achieved. Liverpool, winless in their last four league games, limped into fifth spot with a meagre 60 points, a total that is almost never enough to achieve Champions League football. Chelsea’s worst run of results since the early 1900s probably saved Liverpool from a season in the Europa League. But none of that is why Slot needed to go. A team can have a bad season, Klopp had at least two in his spell and he was afforded time to put it right. The reason that Slot can not be given that time is that he has been unable to rectify a complete disconnect between himself and the fans (and seemingly some of the players). It is one thing to lose the Liverpool fans on social media, it is easily done in modern times, but to have the Kop booing substitutions is another level entirely. Results are part of it, of course, but the real catalyst for the discontent that has resulted in booing at Anfield is the style of football, or lack of it. Performances have mostly been sterile and lethargic devoid of energy and dynamism across the pitch. The blame for that has been attributed to the manager.
Where did it all go wrong?
In 2025/26, Liverpool scored three or more goals on just six occasions in the league. The first three of those occurred because Liverpool had surrendered two-goal leads and were forced to chase a winning goal (at Anfield against Bournemouth, at St James’ Park and at Elland Road). The last three occasions were in the rare routine home wins against West Ham, Newcastle and Crystal Palace in the second half of the season. This may not seem that significant but it points to something about Slot’s style. He does not set up his team to score a lot of goals. He wants them to take the lead and then control the game. When it works, it can be boring. When it does not, it can be a mess. This season, the team was not good enough at either end of the pitch to exert that level of control on a game of football. Liverpool conceded three or more goals on seven occasions in the league this season, conceding 53 goals. There have been only two seasons since the mid-1960s in which Liverpool have conceded more goals than they did this season. There was none of the excitement, with none of the control.
The second major issue with Slot’s Liverpool this season was that far too often they were passive and lacked any real identity. If you watched every Liverpool game this season, I’m not sure you would be able to say what type of team Liverpool are without using the words ‘slow’, ‘boring’ or ‘passive.’ The Reds turned up at places like Brentford and Bournemouth and allowed a game to happen around them, every facet of the game dictated by the opposition. At times, it was as if they had never seen those teams play before. Perhaps it was poor tactical preparation, perhaps it was arrogance. Either way, it was not good enough from champions. What really stands out with those two games is the contrast from the previous season. In 24/25, the late win at Brentford in which Liverpool battered down the door with Darwin Nunez eventually scoring twice in added time and the pivotal victory at Bournemouth where Liverpool held firm against Bournemouth pressure and two Salah goals delivered the points. In 25/26, these were both 3-2 defeats where defensive disasters saw Liverpool 2-0 down in atrocious first half displays. That steel, that resilience and persistence that pervaded Liverpool in Slot's first season was long gone.
In the autumn, Slot seemed personally affronted when a team played with a low-block or hurled a long throw into our penalty area. By the springtime, Liverpool were parking a bus of their own, Joe Gomez, towel-in-hand, preparing to launch a missile to the back stick. If you can’t beat them, join them (and get beat anyway). The lack of a clear idea or way of playing has hurt Slot’s cause. Liverpool need to be an attacking team. Of course, Liverpool teams of the past have had success playing defensively but the construction of this squad means that defensive football is not possible. Liverpool had no fit right-backs, no specialist holding midfielder and attacking players that don’t offer a lot running back towards their own goal and added to all that, no legs all over the pitch. Despite all the issues with the squad as a whole and the attack riddled with injuries, loss of form and legs falling off, Liverpool have failed to score in just five league games over Slot’s tenure. Goalless draws with Arsenal and Leeds, a 3-0 defeat at the Etihad and two home defeats to Nottingham Forest. If Slot had leaned into an attacking approach this year instead of whatever that was, I think he’d still be Liverpool manager at the start of next season.
Let down by the club
Where I feel sorry for Slot is that it appears that he had the club's full support behind the scenes right up until he didn't. He was allowed to write off the season with the intention of resetting in the summer and going again. If Slot had known his job was hanging by a thread, I am sure he would have managed those last few months differently. It may not have saved him in the long-term but I think he deserved the opportunity to go out with a fight rather than a whimper. But maybe that is on him. Whether a Liverpool manager should be throwing the towel in on a season is questionable. Those running the club were ruthless in deconstructing the squad that Klopp built and so far the replacements have not been fit to lace the boots of their predecessors. Wirtz and Isak, so far, look to be an underwhelming use of £250m, Ekitike was good but will miss most of next season. Frimpong and Kerkez are significant downgrades on Trent and Robertson. With Salah and Robertson leaving and Konate and Jones seemingly heading out with them, the remainder of the squad have very little credit in the bank. By the end of next season, Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk will likely be gone too. If the succession planning for those two Liverpool all-time greats is Mamardashvili and two 20-year-old centre-halves, then somebody at the club is not doing their job properly. The mood around the club is as bad as it has been since Liverpool lost 6-1 at Stoke in Steven Gerrard’s final game and those making the decision on what comes next now have nowhere to hide.
Arne Slot has shown that he is not the answer for Liverpool but the blame for the problems at the club does not sit solely with him. I hope, in time, that Slot will be remembered fondly as any title-winning manager by those who have been most vocal about removing him from his position. He deserves to be and I hope that his relationship with the club will be positive. I can only speak for myself when I say that I wish him all the best and hope that he goes on to have a successful career elsewhere.
