Arne Slot Faces Pressure at Liverpool Amidst Premier League Struggles

Arne Slot’s second season at Liverpool is starting to feel like a warning siren rather than a project in progress – and Steven Gerrard can hear it loud and clear.

A club that spent a staggering £446 million on new players last summer now sits 21 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal. That gap isn’t just a number; it’s a statement about where Liverpool are, and where they are not. Champions League qualification, once a minimum requirement, has turned into a scramble.

Gerrard, speaking on talkSPORT, didn’t bother dressing it up.

He fears for Slot.

"I think if the ownership and the people above, they see that gap, the Villa, and United stretches or gets any worse, I worry for the manager's position," he said. This wasn’t a throwaway line from a distant pundit. This was a club legend, a former captain who knows exactly how ruthless Anfield expectations can be.

And yet, Gerrard made it clear he rates Slot highly. He spoke of being “blown away” by the Dutchman’s first season, praised him as “a good man” and “a very, very good coach” who had done an impressive job. That admiration only sharpened the edge of his warning. This isn’t a call for change. It’s a fear that change might be coming.

For Gerrard, the next week could define everything.

"I think the key to this situation will be the Fulham game," he said, pinpointing it as a pivot point in Liverpool’s season. Beat Fulham, keep the pressure on Aston Villa and Manchester United in the race for the top four, and stay alive in the tie against PSG next week, and the mood shifts. Results there, he believes, could steady the ground under Slot.

"But if this was to get any worse," Gerrard added, "I'd be worried for the manager, I must say."

The concern doesn’t stem only from the table. It comes from what happened – and what was said – around the defeat to Manchester City.

Liverpool created chances and failed to take them. Against a side of City’s calibre, that’s usually fatal. Gerrard acknowledged City’s quality, calling them “outstanding over the course of the game,” but his focus locked onto Liverpool’s collapse.

"It was really worrying and concerning the way Liverpool did crumble," he said. That word – crumble – cuts deep. It speaks to mentality, to resilience, to the steel that once defined Liverpool under Jürgen Klopp and before that in Gerrard’s own era.

What alarmed him even more were the players’ comments after the final whistle. Some admitted there was “no fight,” that they had “given the game up.” Those phrases, in Gerrard’s eyes, crossed a line.

"At Liverpool football club, that can't happen on the pitch, and it certainly can't be said off the pitch," he insisted. For a man who dragged Liverpool through countless games on willpower alone, hearing current players talk about a lack of fight is almost unthinkable.

This is where the tension now sits: a highly regarded coach, a heavily backed squad, a fanbase that expects far more, and a legend openly admitting he is worried about the manager’s future if results slide any further.

Fulham first. PSG after that. Two games, two competitions, and possibly one defining stretch for Arne Slot’s grip on the Liverpool job.