Arne Slot Faces Pressure as Liverpool's Season Falters

Arne Slot walked into Liverpool promising continuity after a title-winning debut season. He now stands in the eye of a storm, his future debated as loudly as his team’s faltering form, with even the make-up of next year’s midfield dragged into the argument.

Liverpool’s limp Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain – 4-0 on aggregate in a quarter-final that never truly caught fire for the Reds – has left them staring at a trophyless campaign. For a club that paraded the Premier League trophy only a year ago, the fall has been brutal.

No League Cup run to soften the blow; that ended in the fourth round against Crystal Palace. No FA Cup salvation; Manchester City slammed that door in the quarter-finals. In the league, Liverpool sit fifth, clinging to a four-point cushion over Chelsea in the chase for next season’s Champions League. That gap looks fragile with the Blues still to come, plus trips to Everton, Manchester United and Aston Villa looming ominously on the calendar.

Slot’s seat, inevitably, feels warmer by the week.

FSG back Slot – for now

Despite the noise, the message from above remains steady. According to David Ornstein, FSG intend to stand by the Dutchman regardless of how this season limps to its conclusion. The hierarchy, it seems, are not ready to rip up the plan after one grim year.

The problem? The pressure will not wait for a board meeting. Performances have dipped, results have followed, and the situation has worsened with Hugo Ekitike’s season-ending Achilles rupture. The France striker is not only out for the rest of this campaign, but a sizeable chunk of the next one as well. For a squad already stretched, it is a punishing blow.

And if Slot does not turn the tide, the fanbase already has its preferred saviours lined up.

• Xabi Alonso.
• Steven Gerrard.

Two Anfield icons, two very different managerial profiles, but both names sung loudly whenever the conversation turns to what comes next.

Pennant’s verdict: Alonso first, and a midfield shake-up

Jermaine Pennant, who shared a dressing room with both Alonso and Gerrard during his three years at Liverpool, believes Slot will ultimately ride out the storm. But if the club do make a change, he is in no doubt who should come through the door.

Pennant told SPORTbible, on behalf of RightBet, that Alonso would be his priority. The logic is clear: Alonso knows the club, understands the demands of the supporters and arrives with his reputation soaring after an outstanding spell at Bayer Leverkusen, where he turned a good side into title winners.

In Pennant’s eyes, Alonso would not simply tweak around the edges. He would reshape the heart of the team.

If appointed, Pennant expects the Spaniard to be ruthless in midfield. Cody Gakpo, he believes, would be moved on. Alexis Mac Allister, too, could be allowed to leave if a strong offer arrived. Energy and legs – those are the qualities Pennant thinks Alonso would demand, and he does not see Gakpo as a player who has won over the fanbase or delivered consistently enough to be safe.

Curtis Jones? His name enters the conversation, but Pennant sees the counterweight. Jones is local, a player who carries the identity of the city and the club. For that reason alone, he argues, you would want him kept in the squad even if others are cut loose.

It is a stark picture: a Liverpool midfield, already heavily retooled in recent windows, potentially facing another round of surgery if Alonso ever steps into the Anfield dugout.

No hiding place for Slot

Speculation over the manager is only one part of a wider uncertainty. Chief executive Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes are also edging towards the final year of their contracts. Three of the most powerful football figures at Anfield all heading towards the same cliff edge.

Pennant, though, sees Slot as the likeliest to stay the distance. In his view, the board will factor in the context: key departures, injuries, and the emotional shock of Diogo Jota’s passing. He expects Liverpool to hand Slot another season with, they hope, a fully fit squad and fewer off-field traumas.

Sympathy, however, does not mean absolution.

Pennant has little time for Slot’s complaints about “so many decisions” going against Liverpool this season. He points out what every manager hates to hear: every team can tell the same story. VAR calls, disallowed goals, red cards, penalties, injuries – no club escapes that chaos. To Pennant, using it as an explanation for Liverpool’s collapse is simply masking how bad this campaign has been.

And it has been bad. With the money spent and the status of defending champions, crashing out of every competition and failing to lift a single trophy represents, in his words, the worst-case scenario.

For him, accountability starts at the top. Slot’s style, tactical choices and selection calls come under the microscope. The manager’s job is to extract the maximum from his players; too often this season, the gap between last year’s standards and this year’s displays has been “night and day”.

The players do not escape either. Pennant is clear that several have failed to step up, their levels dropping sharply from the heights of the title-winning campaign. The blame, he insists, is collective – but the chain of responsibility begins with the man in the technical area.

Slot, then, must do more than simply ride out the speculation. He has to rally a bruised dressing room, pick the right personnel for the run-in, and restore a style that looks recognisably Liverpool.

Because if he cannot, the conversation will not be about whether Xabi Alonso could transform the midfield. It will be about when Liverpool are ready to hand him the keys.