The Curious Case of Arne Slot's Paris Romance and Liverpool's Slump
Mohamed Salah will be hoping to re-capture some of last season's form for Liverpool in this year's Bigger Cup tie against PSG. The Egyptian forward's performance has been under scrutiny as the Reds prepare for a high-stakes clash in Paris.
Slot's Emotional Attachment to a Defining Night
Arne Slot tries his best not to choke up when he talks of last year's meeting between Liverpool and PSG. "I hope every fan around the world was hoping this game wouldn't stop because it was incredible," he blubbed in March 2025. His team had just lost on penalties to the soon-to-be Bigger Cup winners. "It was the best game of football that I was ever involved in." If the Slot regime comes to its end this summer, with a significant groundswell of opinion among Kopites nodding in that direction, then it is curious he keeps returning to an infamous European night at Anfield which may well prove the beginning of the end.
A few days later, Liverpool deservedly lost a Fizzy Cup final to a much more inspired Newcastle. Things have never quite been the same since, despite a 20th league title being claimed in April. Slot will always have Paris. "My football is Paris Saint-Germain v Liverpool, Liverpool v Paris Saint-Germain," Slot cooed after Fulham's Harrison Reed had scored a last-minute equaliser against his team in January. "That is how I would love to have every single game, but you need to have two teams to have an open game of football and not all these things that don't make a game of football nice."
Current Struggles and Fan Discontent
On Wednesday, Slot will doubtless be wearing his best Harrington jacket and splashing on the Lynx Africa when Liverpool return to Paris for a Bigger Cup rekindling of his ecstatic romance. He could barely contain himself after beating Galatasaray in the last 16 set up the reunion, mooning: "I've said many times that it was the best game I've managed in my career, even though we lost, in terms of how it was played with both teams playing football the way it should be played and wanting to entertain the fans."
Problematically for Slot and Liverpool, a fortnight widely previewed as two weeks to relaunch the Reds began with that FA Cup performance at Manchester City. Liverpool were playing quite well, Curtis Jones so full of confidence he was showing off his best back-heels and lollipops. Then Virgil van Dijk chopped down Nico O'Reilly. From that moment, disaster followed and once Erling Haaland had made it 4-0 in the 57th minute, much of the away contingent were heading for the Etihad stairways.
The sight of Dominik Szoboszlai, the one player whose performance levels have sustained, giving it the big one back to unhappy fans, was unhelpful to say the least. Then again, so were the performances of Szoboszlai's teammates, with Van Dijk's trademark cool reduced to Coldplay levels and Mohamed Salah looking less the sixth-best player in Liverpool history than the 6,000th. Not all is blamed on Slot, with club suits similarly low in the popularity ratings, but submission at City was a prime example of his team being a soft touch. "You shouldn't give up," wailed Van Dijk. To Wednesday: Slot getting fluttery again? Down and out in Paris and Liverpool?
Broader Football Context and Fan Reactions
In other football news, Kristyna Janku of FC Slovacko reflected on the aftershocks from learning her former coach Petr Vlachovsky had been caught secretly filming in the women's team's dressing room for four years. "You can't shake this new habit of always looking around. I'm more careful and hide more when I'm changing before games and after games. More widely I'm more careful too – when I go to a public pool it's not like it was before, I try to not expose myself too much even when I'm in a private cubicle," she said.
Football Daily letters highlighted fan frustrations, with one reader noting: "With Aaron Ramsey having been without a club since the end of last year and now retiring, it looks like we've moved from players announcing their retirement who we weren't even aware were still playing to players announcing their retirement who were already retired but weren't aware of it themselves." Another lamented Arsenal's consistency in blowing chances, while others debated Australian slang in a light-hearted exchange.
Recommended content includes David Squires' cartoons on FA Cup shocks, the Football Weekly podcast reviewing weekend action, and a preview of the Classic Football Shirts book, celebrating retro football apparel. This analysis underscores the tension between Slot's nostalgic romance with past glories and Liverpool's pressing need to address current form issues as they face PSG in a pivotal Bigger Cup match.
