John Barnes has urged Liverpool to ignore the prospect of a Xabi Alonso return - insisting Arne Slot remains the best man for the job at Anfield.
Slot won the Premier League in his first year in charge after succeeding Jurgen Klopp but has found his sophomore season more difficult this time out, with the champions losing 10 of their 31 matches so far.
That records leaves the Reds in fifth and facing a battle to qualify for next season's Champions League, having won just four league games since the start of 2026.
Former Bayer Leverkusen boss Alonso has been out of work since he was relieved of his duties at Real Madrid in January. The 2005 Champions League winner has been tentatively named as a potential successor to Slot if Liverpool part company with the Dutchman at the end of the campaign.
Reds legend Barnes, however, believes Slot shouldn't be sacked, arguing that the title success 12 months ago has earned the head coach more time to get things right.
"Well, I understand the clamour because Xabi is a Liverpool favourite," Barnes said. "But did he not fail at Real Madrid? Was he actually a successful manager?
"Of course, don't get me wrong, I think Xabi is great and he did a good job. But he got sacked by Real Madrid for failure, didn't he? That's why they got rid of him.
"Of course we do like the clamour for ex-players. Steven Gerrard’s been mentioned before. So I understand the way fans are. But this is the way fans are. They're very fickle.
"We won the league with Arne Slot and all of a sudden we want to sack him?
"If he then goes and Alonso comes, suppose Alonso fails in his first six months or first year, are we going to say sack him and bring somebody else in?
"I always support the managers, whoever they are, because they come to the club because of their success, because they're good managers, and they have to be given time.
"Jurgen Klopp was 20 points off the top when he first came, but we stuck with him. So I think Xabi will be a great manager one day, but I want Arne Slot to stay."
Liverpool return to action after the international break with an FA Cup quarter-final at Manchester City on Saturday (April 4) followed by a Champions League last-eight first-leg tie at Paris Saint-Germain next Wednesday (April 8).
And Barnes says the summer of turnover in the transfer market is behind what has been an inconsistent year for Slot's team.
Speaking to the ECHO via OLBG, the former England winger added: "Well, it's been a disappointing season. It's been an inconsistent season.
"We've seen in flashes how good we can be. But I always say to people, because we spent all that money on such good players, it doesn't mean it's going to work all of a sudden.
"We signed lots of players. They're all good players individually. We're trying to find the right blend. We're trying to find the right way of playing. But we've got good players. We've got good characters.
"I didn't feel that all of a sudden, because we spent £450m, we were going to start running away with things. We won the league by 10 points signing virtually no one.
"When people said we were going to run away with it now because we'd signed all these players, unfortunately football doesn't work that way.
"So we're going through a teething period with these new players. If you look at what Sunderland have done, they've probably got a whole new team of 11 players.
"What Jurgen Klopp did the season before last was sign one or two players to come into a settled team.
"When you sign five or six players to come into the first team, it'll take time. We're trying to find a new way of playing, but you can see that when we play well, we really play well. We just need to get some consistency."
