Arne Slot may be rapidly losing popularity among the Liverpool fan base amid a dreadful season at Anfield, but one journalist has come out strongly in defence of the under-fire Dutchman.
James Pearce reported on Monday that LFC chiefs would like to keep faith in the 47-year-old beyond this summer, but warned that the head coach’s job could become untenable if this already miserable campaign ‘completely unravels’ over the next seven weeks.
Such has been the Reds’ demise over the past few months that Alan Shearer believes not even Champions League qualification via a top-five domestic finish would save Slot, although the tactician has one firm ally in the British media.
In a column for the Daily Mail on Monday, Oliver Holt argued that the Liverpool head coach ‘deserves credit, not brickbats’ for the job that he’s done since replacing the legendary Jurgen Klopp, pointing to last season’s unexpected Premier League triumph and the trauma of Diogo Jota’s tragic death nine months ago.
The journalist wrote: ‘With everything that has been thrown at him and the club, it is to his credit that Liverpool are still in the hunt for a place in the top five in the Premier League.
‘If they get that place, if they qualify for the Champions League next season after the death of Jota, after all the other challenges the club has faced, after losing a manager as influential as Klopp, after facing up to the loss of Salah, after rebuilding the side, then Liverpool will be set for a return to success next season.
‘Slot did a magnificent job last season. This season, he is holding Liverpool together as the club sails through a storm. Cut him some slack.’
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It’s impossible to imagine how tough it’s been for Slot to manage his squad through the fatality of a universally beloved teammate last summer, and that is absolutely a mitigating circumstance for how difficult this season has been.
However, even when allowing for that impossible-to-quantify factor, the extent of Liverpool’s drop-off over the past six months has been a poor reflection on the head coach, who hasn’t helped himself with various press conference utterances – we’ve heard enough about ‘low blocks’ to do us for a lifetime.
It’s hard to envisage the Dutchman keeping his job if the Reds fail to qualify for the Champions League, with reports that not even FA Cup glory this season would’ve saved him in that scenario, and it seems near-impossible for him to regain the trust of many fans who’ve now turned against him.
We don’t want LFC to become a sacking club who don’t give managers a fair chance, but taking the reins at Anfield comes with an expectation to achieve and maintain elite standards, something Slot has been unable to do in the current campaign.
Ultimately, we all want Liverpool to be successful irrespective of which personnel are involved, and for that reason we fervently hope that the 47-year-old can instigate a turnaround in fortunes every bit as dramatic as the drop-off from this time last year has been.
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Haha wow, that is a phenomenal piece of nonsense from Holt. “Holding LFC together” and “deserves credit for having us in contention for 5th?”. Staggering even if it was written by Slots agent.
Stop milking Jota. He is our legend and we honor him on the 20th min. He should be inspiring us to win but too bad we did not get the right tactics, formation and instruction to play.
He’s obviously not watch one minute of the miserable football that I’ve endured all season. The transformation anti this mentally weak feeble team started last season. Slot prepared for the psg game by telling his team the were second best before a ball had been kicked. This manger just doesn’t have an elite mentality!!
Klopp would not have said this. He would prepare the team to deal with psg.
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