Liverpool FC Forum

Slot has already lost his assistant and a couple of coaches this season, not sure who is left from the Klopp era. But think we could easily improve.

But would he commit to a long term project?

As you say Reg, we need someone to commit to 5 years.

So what do we think guys? 18 points out of the last 55 points available. Its shocking at this level.. and I think the "unbeaten" run has made us look better than we are. How long do we give Slot at this stage? Because its only going to get worse.

The unbeaten run sounds great but in reality there was a lot of draws against sides we should be beating. The standard has slipped a lot to the point we think the odd win is progress. The football is shyte and both manager and players are responsible for it. Its painfully slow and repetitive for the most part. Rinse and repeat attack after attack which is awful to watch. The intensity we where used to isnt there anymore along with the ability to unlock games that are stale. Slot struggles with this and teams know it. Like Burnley today, they did what we expected them to do. They are never going to be open and go toe to toe with us. They are going to sit back and try to snatch something on the break which they did. I cant fault them for that as they are an inferior side thats desperate for points so did what they had to. Its us thats the problem. We dont have a gameplan to break teams down. Full backs just lay it off or hit aimless balls at the defenders. We dont look to find our players who seem to not want to find space to recieve the ball in. Tactically we arent at the races at all and thats on Slot who imo isnt getting the best out of what we have.

Liverpool have 5 wins and 21 points in their last 17 Premier League games - 1.24 pts/game.

Roy Hodgson averaged 1.25 pts/game as Liverpool manager.

The other side of the coin is we have the overheads of a Top 4 side and have spent a fortune building this side, we can't play at Burnley's level or we go out of business. Something has to change and in light of knowing we don't have the funds to rebuild the side we have to carry on with the current squad. So the logical decision is to replace the manager.

Our earlier crisis was the back 4, then the lack of goals, then the midfield being overrun. Seems those issues have been replaced by tactical sterilisation.

Nothing against Slot as a bloke, but this football is boring and not really in a 'safe' kind of way because we ship goals in just about every game. If we took a 1 nil lead then sat it out for 80 mins and got the win well then that's one thing, but we're not, we're getting tonked at home and now we're drawing against lower league teams and stuffing up all Klopp's great work. Slot is a good bloke, he's just been found out really quickly

After spending £450m last summer, Liverpool are facing more transition

Centre-back situation suddenly feels just one of a number of issues that need resolving as Arne Slot faces questions all over the field that could be expensive to answer
Paul Joyce

Sunday January 18 2026, 5.25pm, The Times

To be plunged into one summer of transition could be considered unfortunate. Two in succession? At the very least, that is unwanted.

The draw with Burnley, a game in which Liverpool registered their highest xG (2.9) in the Premier League this season but still could not scramble over the line, served to muddy their prospects of playing in the Champions League next term.

Just as difficult to decipher is how the squad might look should fourth place be cemented from what has so far been a tumultuous defence of the title.

The past week has highlighted as much, with doubts surrounding the futures of Ibrahima Konaté and Andrew Robertson, and Marc Guéhi’s impending move to Manchester City from Crystal Palace meaning the centre back Liverpool had hoped to sign in the summer will now become a rival.

The uncertainty does not end there.

Mohamed Salah is scheduled to return to the Liverpool squad this week after Egypt’s Africa Cup of Nations campaign, with his pre-tournament outburst against Arne Slot dictating that no one seems to be quite sure whether this is the start of a long goodbye, in which he will leave before next season.

Reinforcements on the right would be a priority then, especially if, as seems likely given he barely plays, Federico Chiesa departs after the end of the campaign.

If Jeremie Frimpong is earmarked for one of those two slots, then Liverpool surely require a right back.

Should Konaté leave on a free transfer, are two new centre backs needed allowing for the reluctance to give Joe Gomez minutes which is, in part, due to his fitness issues? Are two necessary regardless?

Is the current midfield ready to push to reclaim the title next season or does it need strengthening? Will Curtis Jones, who had been attracting interest from Tottenham Hotspur, feel it is time to be more of a guaranteed starter somewhere?

Kostas Tsimikas is due to return from a loan spell with Roma and may become back-up to Milos Kerkez if Robertson departs when his contract expires in five months. But that is not a long-term solution. Like Gomez and Virgil Van Dijk, Tsimikas’ contract is up in 2027.

There are a lot of questions, some of which could be expensive to answer.

And that is before we get to the future of Slot — who heard the final whistle on Saturday followed by boos — sporting director Richard Hughes and the CEO of football for Liverpool owner Fenway Sports Group, Michael Edwards. They all have 18 months left to run on their contracts.

Oh, and there’s also a set-piece coach to appoint.

What can be said with certainty is this apparent state of flux is not what Liverpool were expecting when spending almost £450 million six months ago. The sense then was having gone big once in the market, they would not have to make a huge splash again and Slot would maximise his players’ potential.

Of course, further additions would be needed as a squad evolves over time, but looking at the breadth of work that Liverpool may have to undertake is sobering. How would not qualifying for the Champions League, and the finances that unlocks, affect all that?

They had banked on receiving £35 million from Aston Villa for Harvey Elliott, having bent over backwards to help the Midlands club structure a loan with a purchase obligation dependent on appearances. Since then, Elliott has been marginalised and an error by Villa will leave Liverpool seeking another buyer for a player whose valuation will hardly be enhanced by a season of inactivity.

In many ways, it has been a curious 18 months of ins, outs and near-misses.
Notwithstanding the fact that Alexander Isak, the £125million centrepiece of last summer’s spree, has not adjusted to life at Anfield yet for a variety of reasons [not least a broken leg], there are growing signs his fellow new recruits will prove good signings.

Florian Wirtz was expensive at a potential £116million fee, but he has four goals in six games, Hugo Ekitike has been a hit, Kerkez is making forward strides and Frimpong is showing promise.

Yet Liverpool also missed out on Martín Zubimendi in the summer of 2024, and could see the midfielder help Arsenal succeed them as champions, while Guéhi’s switch to City comes less than five months after he was in a scanner having a medical on a £35million move to Anfield.

Guéhi was never Liverpool’s priority centre-back signing last summer. That was Giovanni Leoni, the teenager from Parma, who suffered an ACL injury on his debut to wreck his season.

But it is clear Liverpool hoped Guéhi would recognise the efforts they had made to sign him before Palace co-owner and chairman Steve Parish pulled the plug on a deal on deadline day and, in turn, waited for them until the summer.

The flipside of that is that Liverpool are not as attractive a proposition now as they were then for any player.

City’s reputed wage offer of £300,000 a week, in addition to paying an initial £20million fee, was a deal Liverpool were unwilling to match financially. They had no intention of bidding this month.

As with everything, it is what Liverpool do next that is the most important factor. Sorting out the centre-back situation, however, suddenly feels just one of a number of issues that need resolving.

I cannot believe that after spending £450m our squad looks so thin everywhere. We need a CB, a CDM, a Winger with pace, and a striker back up. We've brought in some quality players, but we lost Trent, Darwin, Diaz, Jota, Elliott.. thats 5 players that contributed a huge amount to our success last season.

Slot giving Gravenberch the freedom to get forward has cost us loads. He was so focused playing that number 6 role.. now he looks unmotivated, and doesnt look switched on to any danger.

Then we've got Szoboszlai who got all the accolades earlier on in the season strolling around thinking hes Zidane, and doesnt look like he's got the legs to make a difference.

Ontop of that Macca looks absolutely knackered for some bizarre reason.

I feel sorry for Wirtz right now.. hes playing football at a different level to everyone else.

It's OK, we're looking at a dutch CB, Van De Ven. FFS take the cheque book off this clown!

Yeah I'm not a fan when a manager favours players of his own nationality like Slot is doing, but van de Ven is a great CB, one of the best in the league imo. Sadly he's injury prone, but I wouldn't mind having him for the right price.

Why not just buy Guéhi?

damjan193 » Tue Jan 20, 2026 4:16 pm wrote:Yeah I'm not a fan when a manager favours players of his own nationality like Slot is doing, but van de Ven is a great CB, one of the best in the league imo. Sadly he's injury prone, but I wouldn't mind having him for the right price.

A lot of foreign managers do this, is it because of a language thing? I don't know. Even back during Wenger, Rafa days it was common.

damjan193 wrote:Yeah I'm not a fan when a manager favours players of his own nationality like Slot is doing, but van de Ven is a great CB, one of the best in the league imo. Sadly he's injury prone, but I wouldn't mind having him for the right price.

I agree.  Don't think its a good idea having so many players of the same nationality.  Could be a big mistake especially if Slot gets the boot.
Not sure how good he is at all because I only would have seen a few minutes here and there on Motd. I did have a look at his injury record on transfermarket and it doesn't make great reading. A lot of hamstring and knee issues. If we did sign him you just know he'd be missing more often than not.

I read Spurs are interested in Jones so maybe a swap plus a small fee might work out best.

An injury prone CB is useless, that along with Goalie is one position you need reliability. Defensive partnerships need consistency.

Sorry Lads ,   
For me Slott won a title with another mans team.
Since then it's been all down hill , he has does nothing to convince me he will lead us to anything anywhere approaching a title of any sort !
The fella has been promoted to a club where expectations far exceed his abilities .

Even after the demolition of Marseille I still would agree with that Woof.