A wet Wednesday night in Liverpool and above the corner of the Steven Gerrard mural on Dinorwic Road, the very top of the huge Anfield Main Stand roof is just about visible.
At just before 9.15pm, Liverpool score their fourth goal against Qarabag of Azerbaijan in the Champions League and a wave of noise sweeps across the rooftops of Liverpool4. Some of it feels like joy. Some of it feels like relief. There will be no nervous, disappointing denouement to a Liverpool game on this occasion.
Earlier, on the TVs of the nearby Flat Iron pub, Gerrard – former captain turned paid pundit – had been talking about his old club. Not much of it was positive. Liverpool’s paying public – their rank and file – do not hear much of it above the sound of their own pub conversations but Gerrard’s worries mirror theirs.
What has gone wrong with last year’s Premier League champions? And can Arne Slot be trusted to turn it all around?
Slot’s Liverpool team beat Qarabag 6-0 and – after last weekend’s league defeat at Bournemouth – it feels like a better night. Inside the stadium an atmosphere that many described as ‘weird’ at kick-off has turned into something more familiar and warm.
But as tunes in honour of players like Mo Salah and Andy Robertson tumble from the stands, the name of the manager is not sung as it once was.
As tunes in honour of players like Mo Salah and Andy Robertson tumble from the stands against Qarabag, the name of the manager is not sung as it once was
Arne Slot’s picture was quickly added to the Kop banner depicting the great Anfield bosses after last season’s debut triumph – but that title win feels like a long time ago
Slot’s image was quickly added to the Kop banner depicting the great Anfield bosses after last season’s debut triumph. But revisionism has arrived quickly. In the ground, the jury would appear to be out in terms of his enduring suitability for the job. Among the more measured, he retains support but in the darker corners of social media, judgment has already been passed and it’s not in Slot’s favour.
Afterwards in the media room, Slot reflects on his team’s passage to the last 16 of the competition. Earlier in the week, he had mused privately that he would not change and that Europe may yet define his season. He saw this night as potentially pivotal to the momentum of Liverpool’s campaign.
But when he reminds the room – as a way of explaining achievement – that Liverpool reached only the last eight of the Europa League two seasons ago, Slot only talks his way into another problem.
‘His language is defeatist even in victory,’ opines a contributor to the influential Anfield Wrap podcast the next morning while another on the episode seeks to provide context but at the same time it hits like a warning.
‘The scrutiny that is applied to managers in the Premier League is different to other countries,’ he says. ‘That scrutiny is even worse when you are playing sh**.’
Other fans online accuse Slot of taking a jab at Jurgen Klopp to make himself look better. Yesterday at 9am, six miles away in Kirkby, Slot returns to the theme as if to explain himself. ‘I will come back to the Europa League thing I said,’ he says. ‘I didn’t want to score or make points. I just wanted to say we cannot take anything like this for granted, even at this club that has such a great history.
‘We have achieved so much at this club but sometimes we also have to enjoy a moment like this qualification.’
Slot is standing in a small room at Liverpool’s training ground. Dressed in a black club tracksuit, his mood ahead of Saturday’s Premier League home game with Newcastle is considerably brighter.
Daily Mail Sport has learned that the club’s ownership had a ‘bit of a worry’ when Slot’s team lost back-to-back home games to Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven in November
‘It’s madness,’ says one agent of a prominent Liverpool player. ‘Slot is a very good coach’
The 47-year-old is nevertheless under enormous pressure. He retains support from the Anfield hierarchy, even though Daily Mail Sport has learned that the club’s ownership had a ‘bit of a worry’ when Slot’s team lost back-to-back home games to Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven in late November.
Among the fanbase, it is very different. There is no unconditional love and indeed no manager has been criticised, critiqued and, by a vocal minority, lampooned for what he says and does quite like Slot has been recently since Roy Hodgson briefly came and went in 2010-11. The difference is that Hodgson won only 13 of 31 games. Slot won Liverpool only their second league title in 35 years.
‘It’s madness,’ says one agent of a prominent Liverpool player. ‘Slot is a very good coach trying to build a new team. He just needs some time. He is different to Klopp but I am not sure how that has to be viewed as a bad thing.’
Slot is indeed different to his predecessor. Last season that felt like a positive but now it’s being framed differently. Whereas last year was expected to be the difficult transitional one, it’s actually arrived a season later.
Liverpool spent £450million on new players in the summer and sit outside the top four, having won only 10 of 23 league games and with a goal difference of just three. On the back of this, Slot’s early quest for acceptance last year has effectively had to begin all over again.
He has clarity when it comes to what must happen and says: ‘There is not a lot of room for mistakes any more. I think it is fair to judge me on this season and not on the last one.’
Equally, Daily Mail Sport understands that he does feel a little disrespected by how quickly last season’s achievements have seemingly been forgotten. Hence the view in some quarters that he has started to publicly defend things he really doesn’t need to.
Slot is not a voracious consumer of mainstream media but he does see things, such as a column written by an ex-Dutch international prior to last season’s Carabao Cup final.
Until Slot moves through this difficult time, comparisons with Champions League winner Jurgen Klopp will continue to be made
‘The squad will never forget what Arne did for them after the death of Diogo Jota,’ says a source close to some first-team players. ‘He was exceptional in the way he simply put them first’
Particularly contentious with those close to him and protective of him is the increasingly-expressed view that he simply won last year’s title with Klopp’s team and until he moves through this difficult time, comparisons with the great German will continue to be made.
‘The squad will never forget what Arne did for them after the death of Diogo Jota,’ says a source close to some first-team players. ‘He was exceptional in the way he simply put them first. Who knows what kind of effect that has had on him? Maybe even he doesn’t know that himself.
‘In terms of the actual football stuff and the way he works day to day, he maybe doesn’t have Klopp’s enormous depths of empathy or emotional intelligence. He is a straight Dutch talker.
‘Maybe the place had a bit more of a family feel under Klopp but he does care and in terms of his coaching and the variety of his tactical approaches, Slot is on a different level to what many of these players have experienced.’
The deification of Klopp – who took four years to win his first Liverpool trophy – will continue unabated on the red side of the city. It was confirmed this week, for example, that he will back in the Anfield dugout for a charity match in March.
Slot is not a politician in the mode of, for example, Rafael Benitez. It’s not his way. The vast majority of what he says publicly is transparent and there is an honesty about him that is hard not to admire.
But his team’s struggles continue to undermine him most of all. Liverpool have not only been losing for chunks of this season but they have often been boring, too.
Slot talks constantly about problems in both boxes and believes the reason his team have performed better in Europe – they have beaten both Real Madrid and Inter Milan for example – is that the Premier League’s renewed enthusiasm for direct football and set-pieces has not yet reached the continent.
His team’s struggles continue to undermine Slot most of all. Liverpool have not only been losing for chunks of this season but they have often been boring, too
Slot is not a politician in the mode of, for example, Rafael Benitez. It’s not his way. The vast majority of what he says publicly is transparent
But if this is the case, how can such an internally revered coach not fix such an obvious set of problems? Liverpool’s struggles to break down massed defences and defend corners and long throws has been utterly painful to observe and a neat summation of Slot’s problems came from a revered and respected voice ahead of Wednesday’s game.
‘I’ve been around this club long enough to know when noise turns into something more serious,’ wrote Liverpool’s iconic Danish midfielder Jan Molby on Substack. ‘What we are seeing and hearing around Liverpool right now feels different to a few months ago. Back then, most people were talking about a blip. Now, it feels like a reckoning, or at least a proper moment of reflection. And at the centre of it all sits Arne Slot.
‘I am not calling for the manager to be sacked. I have sympathy for him. But sympathy does not mean ignoring what is right in front of us.
‘Slot won the Premier League in his first season, and that buys you credit. It buys you time. But it does not buy immunity forever. What matters now is what happens next, and whether there is a sense that this team is moving forward or quietly going backwards.’
At Liverpool’s training ground a new dynamic is being sought. The club won a league title last season and then had no choice but to rip up the team. That in itself is highly unusual. Champions teams usually build on what they have. Liverpool had to start again after losing players with 885 league games between them.
‘That’s one of the reasons Klopp left,’ says a source with knowledge of the situation. ‘He saw a lot of this coming.’
With so much money spent on six new players, integration has been a challenge. ‘There has been a bit of a them and us,’ says a source close to a player. ‘Not in a remotely bad way. Just in terms of the established players waiting to see what the new ones have got.’
Injuries – in particular across the defence – have hampered this. Equally the star signing of the summer – German midfielder Florian Wirtz – is introverted and has taken time to find his voice and indeed his form. On the field at least, Wirtz has taken encouraging steps in recent games.
Florian Wirtz (No7) has taken encouraging steps in recent games but is introverted off the pitch
Injuries to players like star forward Alexander Isak have not helped Slot’s cause
And then there is the make-up of Slot’s squad. Last season Liverpool had a core of about 18 or 19 players on which they could depend. This time round, that number has dropped to between 13 and 15.
Injuries to players like star forward Alexander Isak and young defender Giovanni Leoni – bought for £26m and badly injured on his debut – have not helped. Liverpool’s attack for this season, for example, was supposed to be built around Isak, Mo Salah and Wirtz but currently the three players have been on the field together for a grand total of 176 league minutes.
A club policy of buying young has also played a part this time round, meaning that the trajectories of teenagers Trey Nyoni and Rio Ngumoha – both 17 – have had to be placed on fast forward.
Slot stresses he is on board with the recruitment model even if it currently feels imperfect. ‘It’s a model of sustainability,’ he says. ‘That’s why everyone talks about £450m but we had to recoup £300m in sales. So that’s our model and I am not frustrated about that, only that too many people don’t notice it.
‘We were able to achieve a lot of good things since this ownership is here and if you have that model it’s smart to bring in young players who you can develop and use for years. If you have a different model you can just spend whatever you want and do whatever you want. If the money just comes, then you can look at a different profile of player from what we are looking at.
‘Also, £250m of what was spent we haven’t used yet. Alexander Isak and Jeremie Frimpong only a little bit and Giovanni Leoni not at all. That is the reality.’
One of Liverpool’s traditional rivals Manchester City have strengthened considerably this month, buying Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth and Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace. The Guehi one has stung on Merseyside. The England defender was in an MRI scanner near Harley Street doing his Liverpool medical last August when Palace pulled the plug on the deal.
‘He was basically one Oliver Glasner hissy fit away from coming to Anfield,’ says an agent in reference to the Palace manager objecting to the transfer.
‘He was basically one Oliver Glasner hissy fit away from coming to Anfield,’ says an agent in reference to Marc Guehi nearly moving to Liverpool in the summer
Liverpool have been denied the services of defender Giovanni Leoni all season
Explanations as to how and why Guehi has ultimately ended up at City and not further west down the M62 vary depending on who you talk to. One well-sourced explanation is that Guehi’s proximity to the end of his Palace contract pushed the transfer fee down and therefore the wages up to a level that would have fractured the Anfield pay structure. The other is simply that Guehi made a football decision.
What is beyond debate is that August’s volte-face by Palace and the subsequent injury to Leoni torpedoed Liverpool’s defensive plans. The idea had been to pair Guehi with Virgil van Dijk and use the experienced Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez as back-up with Leoni slowly being allowed to find his feet.
Instead, with Gomez also suffering injuries, Van Dijk and Konate have been asked to play almost constantly. Van Dijk, 34, has looked in need of a lie down recently and, despite his horror show against Bournemouth last week, will simply not be allowed one.
Against Newcastle, Slot will doubtless field midfield players at right back and at centre half. That was OK against Qarabag but it will feel different on Saturday night. Slot has vowed not to bow to the current English trends. He will play his way, what he feels is the right Liverpool way. Few would argue with him about that but with Newcastle in town and City due to visit next weekend, it feels rather like the beginning of the rest of Slot’s time at Anfield starts here.
There is no mural of Slot on the current Liverpool tour that thus far numbers 21. There is nothing representative of him on the much-decorated walls and ceilings of the Flat Iron either. Slot has a Premier League title but the road towards real acceptance – never mind adulation – currently feels strangely long.
