Slot won the league in his first season but Liverpool’s title defence has been disappointing. Should he stay or go?
The rare sound of boos rang out at Anfield after the final whistle on Saturday. Normally, that would be an extreme response to a 1-1 draw with Chelsea, but context is everything. The visitors went into the game on the back of six straight league defeats, looking vulnerable and there for the taking. Not for the first time this season, though, Liverpool failed to add to a visiting opponent’s woes.
Manchester United earned their first away win of the season at Anfield in October after picking up just one point from their first three league trips. Nottingham Forest also struggled early in the campaign, losing three and drawing two of their first five away games, before claiming a comprehensive 3-0 victory at Liverpool in November. Burnley had lost eight of their 10 away league games when they visited Anfield in January yet they earned a 1-1 draw.
Perhaps the most egregious was in March when Tottenham were at their lowest ebb. Heading for what felt like an inevitable relegation after five straight league defeats, Spurs won what turned out to be Igor Tudor’s only Premier League point with a late Richarlison goal securing a 1-1 draw.
Then there was the draw with Chelsea on Saturday, when murmurs of frustration from the stands had been audible even when Liverpool led 1-0. Ryan Gravenberch’s superb strike gave Arne Slot’s men an early lead, but the hosts stood off their opponents rather than going for the kill. It was slow, uninspired and all too familiar. In the end, Chelsea equalised. Dominik Szoboszlai and Virgil van Dijk hit the woodwork in the second half, but the home fans vented at the latest underwhelming performance and missed opportunity. It was a world away from the celebrations that followed the 5-1 win over Spurs that sealed the Premier League title a year ago.
There have also been heavy home defeats in the cups. Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the League Cup was the first time they had lost a domestic cup match at Anfield by three goals without scoring since February 1934. And their 4-1 defeat to PSV in the Champions League was their ninth in 12 games – their most in a 12-game spell since November 1953 to January 1954 (also nine).
There have also been numerous poor showings on the road. Liverpool have picked up just one point from seven away games against teams in the top nine of the Premier League this season, and they face fifth-placed Aston Villa in their final away game on Friday. They were also beaten in early March by rock-bottom Wolves, who have not won since.
The discontent at Anfield on Saturday felt akin to the mood during the end days of Roy Hodgson’s short-lived reign 15 years ago, and it brought Slot’s future further into the spotlight. Liverpool’s owners seem determined to stick with him, but can such dissatisfaction from the stands really be ignored? We’ve picked three reasons why Liverpool should stick with Slot and three reasons why it is not a simple decision.
Slot won the Premier League in his first season in England with relative ease. There are people who argue he did so by riding the crest of the wave left by his predecessor, but Jürgen Klopp had just fallen short with the same squad.
On top of that, even in a league campaign that has thrown up so many disappointments, Liverpool are still on course to qualify for the Champions League and will probably finish in the top four if they avoid defeat to Aston Villa on Friday. It’s not what they wanted at the start of the campaign, but is it really a sackable offence?
Yes, they have lost 11 league games this season – the most since 2014-15 – but only four teams have lost fewer in a campaign that has been as competitive as we’ve seen for some time.
They will also end the season trophyless, but two of the three teams who eliminated them from cup competitions will appear in a European final this season (Crystal Palace and Paris Saint-Germain), and the other was Manchester City, who may still win the Premier League.
2) His Feyenoord spell showed this isn’t what he wants
Perhaps more than the results, Liverpool fans are concerned about the way the team is playing. But as Slot insisted after the game on Saturday, he doesn’t want them to be standing off and playing in a passive manner.
Of course, it is his job to get the players to carry out his instructions, but there is only so much he can do on the touchline. There was also nothing from Slot’s past to suggest this drop-off was going to occur. After he won his first title at Feyenoord in 2022-23, his team did fail to retain their Eredivisie crown, but that was mostly due to an astonishing overperformance from PSV.
Many of Feyenoord’s numbers improved – their expected goals total when they won the title was 66.3, which raced up to a phenomenal 95.2 the following season – but Peter Bosz’s PSV were ruthless and won 91 points from 34 games.
This is the first season of his career that Slot has experienced a downward trend. He could have handled it better but should be given the benefit of the doubt as he is still learning as a coach. He should, in theory, be much stronger for it.
3) Are the new signings partly to blame?
That sounds harsher than it’s meant to, but Liverpool’s hefty outlay in the transfer market last summer has not produced the expected results. Losing established and settled players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Díaz, and in especially tragic circumstances, Diogo Jota, was going to make things hard enough, but it was made tougher by the struggles of the new arrivals.
Alexander Isak was signed without having trained properly in months and then suffered a broken leg just as he was getting up to speed. Florian Wirtz has shown flashes but has been a far cry from the wizard we saw at Bayer Leverkusen. Milos Kerkez made a slow start but has become one of Liverpool’s most dependable players. And Hugo Ekitiké largely did well before his horrific Achilles injury – just as Isak was coming back.
Slot has not had an opportunity to do whatever the plan was when they were signed. Jeremie Frimpong’s story sums up Slot’s luck: he has already missed more games through injury at Liverpool than he did in his four and a half years at Leverkusen.
Ekitiké is unlikely to be back until deep into next season but, otherwise, Slot can hope for better luck with injuries, while also using pre-season to get Isak properly up to speed, and adding more faces to help get fresher legs and more pace into the team. Of course, ideally those new signings will have a smoother first season.
1) Things are not getting better
This was the crux of it for Liverpool fans on Saturday. The insipid performances from the first half of the season are still happening. Even victories have rarely been via convincing showings. They look likely to qualify for the Champions League qualification but there is no getting away from some of the alarming numbers.
They won their first five games this season, but Liverpool have not won more than three league outings in a row since. They are averaging just 1.67 goals per game in the league this season – their lowest since 2015-16 (1.66) – and they are only averaging 9.9 shots in the box per game, their lowest in seven years. They have also faced 11.4 shots per game, their most since 2013-14.
Mohamed Salah’s output dropping off a cliff has not helped, but Slot was praised for getting the best out of the Egyptian last season – when he registered 57 goal involvements in all competitions – so he should share the blame for the fact Salah only has 21 in what will be his final season at Anfield.
2) Liverpool are too easy to play against
The very least fans demand of their team is to make things difficult for their opponents. It was reported as a damning statistic that Saturday was the first time in the Premier League this season that Chelsea outran their opposition, but the difference was minimal (103.6km to 102.9km) and there are a lot of factors and context that go into distance covered numbers.
What Slot will be more worried about is that his team has conceded 48 goals in the league this season. If they allow at least three more in their last two games, it will be the most Liverpool have conceded in a 38-game Premier League season.
The fans were used to seeing relentless pressing during Klopp’s peak. This season, Liverpool are only winning possession in the final third 4.1 times per game in the league, their lowest since 2014-15. They have been quite efficient when winning the ball high in fairness; their 10 goals scored from high turnovers is more than the seven managed in Klopp’s final season, though they recorded 20 high turnovers in the opposition’s penalty area in 2023-24. This season, they have done so just four times.
That could partly be due to teams being more willing to launch the ball long from the back, though, which somewhat leads into our final point.
3. His style does not suit what the Premier League has become
We’ve already covered how football has changed markedly in the last 12 months since Liverpool won the Premier League. In short, the English top flight was a quite different place back then. It seemed as though several teams decided over the summer of 2025 to change their approach to be more set-piece focused, more open to long balls, and happier to take time out of games where possible.
Slot has spoken numerous times this season about how many teams now set up in a way to spoil their play – as is their right, of course – but there has been little sign of him finding a solution. Liverpool struggled against all types of opponents, but set pieces have been a big problem for them.
Liverpool have conceded 18 goals from set-piece situations (excluding penalties) in the Premier League this season – their most ever in a single campaign in the competition (previously 16 in 1992-93). They have been able to score 16 of their own, in fairness, but they’ll probably hope trends change again next season. If 2026-27 gives us more of the same, Slot will have to adjust better than he has this season to get Liverpool to where they expect to be, and get the fans onside again.
The club seem minded to back Slot. It would be somewhat refreshing in an age of managers often being given so little time, though it would also be a huge call given the obvious scepticism from large parts of the fanbase. Does Slot deserve more respect for the things he achieved last season and the way he has carried himself in adversity? Absolutely. Does he deserve to be Liverpool head coach next season? That’s a very different question.
This is an article by Opta Analyst
