Arne's Slot machine stops

After just 2 seasons, 29 losses and a Premier League title later. Arne Slot has been sacked by Liverpool. This comes after an extremely poor season where Liverpool finished 5th. It was the most losses we have had in 32 years and had -24 point differential from the season before. He also becomes the first Liverpool manager in 11 years to be sacked. While he did give us a ton of memories that I will forever be thankful for I can't help but saying this was the right decision. In this article I will be going through: where it went wrong, Why it went wrong and who can replace him.

Where it wrong

Coming off a league title win, Arne Slot made seem as though Liverpool had made the right choice for a manager. especially after he spent 450 million pounds on transfers. He signed some really big names like Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Jeremie Frimpong. Many people like me, thought Liverpool would blitz the league.

Spoiler alert we didn't.

We started the season with a loss on penalties to Crystal Palace but there was some good displays from Wirtz, Frimpong and especially Hugo Ekitike who was Liverpool's best player by far. We then started the league season with a bang with 7 straight wins. It was 6 out of those 7 games we dominated in small portions and were shocking for the rest and somehow won with last minute winners in 5 of those 7 games we scored a goal in the last minute to win. Hugo Ekitike shined in all of those games scoring 4 in these 7. Szobozlai also shined in multiple areas of the pitch. Then it all fell apart.

We lost 4 straight games, the first time since 2014. In all 3 of those league games we lost to a last minute winner in all 3 league games we lost in a row. We then ended the streak with a 5-1 win against win with Flo and Dom and Hugo all impressing. we then lost to Brentford where we looked the worst we have been. This game isn't the won I want to focus on.

The game I want to focus on now is when my confidence in Slot started to slip. That game is when we lost 3-0 to palace at Anfield. That is terrible for any Liverpool manager but what made it worse is that he didn't start a single first team player. You make think "oh, he left them on the bench right?" wrong they were all youth players. One standout player was 17 year old Rio Ngumoha who had started to get first team minutes and even scored a last minute winner against Newcastle and became Liverpool youngest ever goal scorer. This was then followed by a win against Madrid somehow.

We then lost to City 3-0 away from home which is poor but expected because of the form we were in. We then got battered 3-0 at home to forest yet again I don't know how. We then lost 4-1 to PSV at home this was my breaking point with Slot. We couldn't win a single game and got battered by 2 mediocre clubs.

We then somehow went 13 games unbeaten which was random but if you zoom in on it there were 6 draws in there. There is one day I want to zoom in on. 6th December 2025, we just came off of a 3-3 draw with Leeds and then all of a sudden, Mo Salah says he feels he has been thrown under the bus. This is not what you want to hear from a club legend but It is true. He couldn't find form and he was dropped but do you know who is on the other wing? Cody Mathes Gakpo.

A man who will be a recurring theme in this article was not allowed to be dropped for some reason but you know we were only halfway through the season he could still improve. He didn't in fact he progressively got worse. Also during this streak we saw a purple patch from Flo which I loved and from that moment he just hit the ground running. We then then scored 10 goals in 2 games somehow and then lost 2-1 to City.

We then had 4 straight wins and then proceeded to Wolves; 20th placed Wolves, a team that had less points than a triangle in March Wolves. I still don't know how 3 months on.

We then beat Galatasaray 4-1 on aggregate after an impressive 2nd leg display. We then lost 3 straight games to Brighton, City and PSG. We got knocked out of 2 tournaments in the same week and we still had to play a second leg in one. Just before the City game however Mo Salah announced he would be leaving Liverpool at the end of the season which devasted me like the rest of Liverpool as he had such an affect on the fans and the city.

We then beat Fulham and this was when Liverpool fans collectively realized a 17 year old is our most dangerous attacker and Gakpo needed to be exiled from the first team. we then lost the second leg to PSG 2-0 again and Hugo ruptured his achilles and will miss up until 2027 which is a major loss. This also had a major impact on him since he would miss the World Cup.

This was when everyone collectively came together to remove Slot from our club. Towards the end of the season we secured 2 wins in our last 6 games which is shocking. One notable loss was the loss to united that sealed their first double against us in 10 years. We ended season in 5th and had 2 club legends leaving.

1 week after the season we decided to sack Slot after his end of season review. It was unexpected but necessary. I just wished we sacked 4 weeks earlier so we could bring in Alonso who went to Chelsea.

Why It went wrong

We could look at multiple reason for why it went wrong. We could say the death of Diogo Jota, his unwillingness to drop Gakpo, His ability to fall out with players or his stupid tactical choices that sometimes make me mad at my Dad for making me fall in love with this team. I'm going to break down these 4 things just so it can be clear on where it wrong.

The first thing I'm going to talk about is the death of Jota. This had an impact on all the players and the coaches since that is like losing a family member. That is a man who they spent more time with then their actual families. One of my best friends always say we have to move on but it would be hard for to move on from such a tragedy. He also needed to find a way to replace him which could have been a hard task since he was so energetic when we was on the pitch. I sometimes feel the fans singing his song or the team seeing his locker every day before training or a game. I could be wrong but that is just my opinion.

The second thing I want to talk about is how is his unwillingness to drop Cody Gakpo. The man has been terrible at all points this season and I think the only time he actually thought about dropping him was in those last 2 or 3 games where we had nothing to play for. Rio was such a threat this entire season. whether that was his agileness or the unpredictableness of his movements. The kid is ridiculous and yet Slot refused to start him. I think his plan was to let him sit behind Gakpo for a year and then start him next year but I don't know. All I know now is that Slot is gone and Gakpo will follow close behind.

The third thing I would like to talk about his about his ability to fall out with players. This season, he fell out with Salah, Jones and Chiesa. Arteta had the same problem when we joined Arsenal but he only fell out with players that were past their time at the club like Xhaka, Lacazette and Auba. I can't help but blame him for all of these falling outs. For some reason he refused to play Chiesa more than 10 minutes, he refused to start Curtis Jones when he was our best midfielder behind Dom all year. I don't think this is the main reason it is up there for 1 of them.

Who should replace him

I think it is so obvious who should replace him I think there is one other option we have skipped over too quickly. While it would be insane I have seen quite a few people say Luis Enrique. This is unrealistic because he has just come off back to back Champions Leagues with PSG and I think he has no intention of leaving whatsoever.

I think the obvious choice for the job is Andoni Iraola. His style football suits the likes of Curtis Jones, Milos Kerkez, Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Dominik Szobozlai really well. He plays the heavy metal football we used to play with Klopp. He also has the ability to unlock Flo, Isak and especially Kerkez who he was able to get the very best out of him in their 2 seasons together. He is an extremely good manager who led a Bournemouth side to their first European tour in their history. Iraola plays this high pressing football a bit like Klopp where it give Flo the freedom to move and Isak to break. We have seen how Dom does when it come to high pressing same as Mac Allister. The one thing I am hoping for is that he makes Ryan Gravenberch sit a bit deeper as when we did that in the title winning season we were rock solid at the back.

I think we should also be looking at Julian Naglesmann who is currently at the German National Team who also plays similar football to Iraola and knows how to lead big teams to glory.

I think the manager we should be looking at is Oliver Glasner. The greatest manager in Crystal Palace history. He led them to a historic FA cup win, a Community shield win and A Conference League win in their first attempt at Europe. I love watching his football and I love the way he conducts himself as a manager treating his players more like friends instead of Colleagues. In my opinion he should be in conversations for the Liverpool job. Overall, It will be Iraola but it's closer than people think.

I think I should end this with a thank you note to Slot. Thank you Arne for giving me the third best day of my life (behind the UCL win and the first league title) you gave us so memories that when we look back on your time with us we can try to overlook this past season and try to focus on our League title.

From the bottom of my heart thank you for everything and I think I can speak for everyone by saying it's such a shame it has ended this way.

Thank you for everything Baldy.