Liverpool Board Backs Under-Fire Manager
Liverpool Football Club has confirmed it will not be making a rash decision regarding the future of its manager, Arne Slot, who continues to retain the backing of the board despite a catastrophic run of form. This support comes just six months after the Dutchman masterminded the Reds' triumphant Premier League title-winning campaign.
A Season Unravelling at Anfield
The team's fortunes have dramatically reversed, with any hope of retaining the title now virtually extinguished. Their prospects in the Champions League are also hanging by a thread following a 4-1 thrashing by PSV Eindhoven at Anfield. This humbling defeat is part of a wider, alarming pattern of results that has plunged the club into a full-blown crisis.
The statistics make for grim reading. Starting with a 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on September 27, Liverpool have suffered nine defeats in their last 12 matches across all competitions, winning only three. This dismal run includes six losses in seven Premier League games, a collapse that has seen them plummet from first to 12th in the table. They are the first defending champions since Leicester in the 2016-17 season to lose six of their opening 12 fixtures.
The scale of the recent defeats is particularly concerning. The loss to PSV marked a third consecutive defeat by a margin of three goals or more, following 3-0 league losses to Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. Both the run of nine losses in 12 games and the sequence of heavy defeats are the club's worst since the 1953-54 season.
Slot's Response and Internal Backing
In the immediate aftermath of the damaging PSV result, Arne Slot addressed the intense speculation surrounding his position. He stated, 'It’s normal and I understand if any manager around the world loses football games, let alone as many as we’ve lost, it’s quite normal that people have an opinion about that.'
When directly asked if he was worried about his job, Slot replied, 'No I’m not worried... My focus is on a lot of things other than worrying about my own position. I try to analyse, try to help the players as much as I can and it’s obvious that I don’t do it the way I did that last season. I need to do better.'
According to reports from Daily Mail Sport, the club's hierarchy is standing by their manager for now. Slot is expected to remain in the dugout for Sunday's challenging Premier League fixture against West Ham United, a team that has found stability under new manager Nuno Espirito Santo and is unbeaten in its last three outings.
Club Legends Weigh In on the Crisis
The situation has prompted reaction from several Liverpool icons. Club legend Steven Gerrard, who made 710 appearances for the Reds, expressed concern but cautioned against rash action. He told TNT Sports, 'Crisis is a strong word, and disrespectful to some of the players that have delivered for this club, and for the manager that’s delivered three months ago. But you cannot deny the team is struggling massively, they’re on a terrible run, confidence is at an all-time low and they just keep bleeding.'
His former teammate, Steve McManaman, believes talk of sacking Slot is premature. 'I think it’s far too early for such questions,' McManaman said. 'They would have to go out of the Champions League and be wallowing near the bottom of the league. They play Arsenal second week of January, that’s when the question should be asked.'
However, another former Liverpool star, Jamie Carragher, offered a more critical perspective, focusing on Slot's team selection. He expressed fury at the manager's continued selection of error-prone defender Ibrahima Konaté, who had another difficult night against PSV. Off-air footage from CBS Sports captured Carragher's furious reaction to a mistake by Konaté that led to PSV's third goal, during which he stated, 'That’s a sackable offence for the manager f****** keep picking him. Should be sacked for that.'
Despite the external noise and the team's precipitous decline, the message from within Anfield remains clear: Arne Slot will be given time to navigate the club out of its current crisis and turn the season around.
