Big breaking news from Liverpool. Manager Arne Slot has been sacked after two years at the Helm, following a season where Liverpool failed to defend their English Premier League Title, without a semblance of fight and went without a trophy.
Arne Slot took over from Jurgen Klopp last season and was immediately successful, winning Liverpool’s 20th League Title in an absolutely brilliant performance. The Reds accumulated 84 points and had a 10-point daylight between them and Arsenal in second position. The team won 25 games, drew 9 and lost just 4.
Arne Slot had made a great start to his Managerial career with Liverpool, but this began to change with some questionable decisions and the loss of Diogo Jota just before the start of the 25-26 season.
Liverpool, buoyed by the success, went into heavy spending to bring Alexander Isak from Newcastle, along with Florian Wirtz and Milos Kerkez, and sold Luis Diaz to Bayern in a spate of strategic decisions.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, the void created by the loss of Jota and the transfer of Luis Diaz upset the mechanics of the team in good measure. The problem was further compounded with a terrible performance from Isak and then his injury, which denied Liverpool his services for a good 3 months. Florian Wirtz was below par as well, and so was Kerkez. Barring Frenchman Hugo Ekitike, no new signing gave favourable results to Liverpool, which eventually affected performance in a big way.
As the Reds went into a tailspin, players who had been terrific last season began wilting too. Alexis Mac Allister and Ibrahima Konate were a shadow of themselves. Even Mo Salah had a poor season by his own standards. Arne Slot was unable to address this issue as Liverpool began to lose their grip on the Title.
Things became worse as one by one Liverpool failed to make progress in domestic competitions, the EFL and FA Cup. Relationships soured between Salah and Slot which not only spoiled the dressing room climate but also affected performance on the field.
It was the handling of the situation by Arne Slot that, in my opinion, went against him. Unfortunately, players also did not respond to his calls as Liverpool depended heavily on Domnik Szoboszlai to get them out of trouble each time.
Liverpool lost the sharp edge they had. The Reds scored just 63 goals against 86 scored last season. They conceded 53 goals against 41 last year, losing 12, winning 17, and drawing 9, accumulating 60 points, compared to 84 last season. Liverpool just scraped to qualify for the Champions League next season.
The statistics say it all: Arne Slot could not give direction to the team when it really mattered. Mo Salah’s parting statement, criticising Liverpool’s style of play and mindset this season, must have also gone against Slot.
These are the perils of managing a high-profile team with a great history and even greater ambitions.
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