If Liverpool had serious doubts, Arne Slot had to go now. Different people in the same roles here have made that mistake before, backing Brendan Rodgers in 2015 only to see things fall apart even more. A new manager deserves a preseason and this summer is going to be busy. What point backing a guy you aren’t sure you want?
More pertinently, Slot had seemingly become a manager many Liverpool players didn’t want either. The defining moment of his season wasn’t the team and Slot being booed, or any milepost during the lamentable title defence, but Mo Salah’s parting shot.
The talk of “heavy metal” football was a call-to-arms not about the results – although they were indeed poor – but the style, a clear nod to Slot’s predecessor and a demand for significant change. Implicitly it read like a message to Liverpool’s hierarchy and it was liked by Florian Wirtz, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Hugo Ekitike, Andy Robertson and Jeremie Frimpong.
Those doubts were entirely valid. Although there will be censure towards the players and their performance, Liverpool became more muddled as Slot’s tenure went on, not less. For most of this season, they fell into an aesthetically displeasing sludge: made individual mistakes in defence, pedestrian in possession, failing to create enough chances and missing many of the ones they did create.
