Gary Lineker Names Xabi Alonso as Potential Liverpool Manager
Arne Slot walked into this season as the man who had restored Liverpool to the top of English football. He now finds himself fighting to convince some that he should still be the man to lead them into the next one.
A 3-2 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford – Liverpool’s 11th league loss of a turbulent 2025/26 campaign – has dragged the debate over his future back into the spotlight. Three straight Premier League wins had eased the noise. One chaotic afternoon in Manchester turned the volume up again.
On the latest episode of The Rest is Football podcast, Gary Lineker went straight to the question many at Anfield have tried to avoid.
“Would Slot be there next season? Eleven defeats in the Premier League, still in the Champions League positions,” he said to Alan Shearer and Micah Richards. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Xabi Alonso was there next season.”
That name has never been far from Liverpool lips. Alonso, adored as a player at Anfield, has long been viewed as a natural heir to Jurgen Klopp. When Klopp announced in January 2024 that he would leave at the end of that season, Alonso was deep into an outstanding spell at Bayer Leverkusen and immediately shot towards the top of Liverpool’s wishlist.
He chose a different path. Last summer he stepped into one of the most demanding jobs in world football, replacing Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid. The move was billed as the next great chapter of his managerial rise. It did not last. Madrid dismissed him earlier this year, and his availability now hangs over any conversation about elite vacancies.
Shearer, sitting alongside Lineker, made it clear where he stands on Slot’s position.
“I think in terms of what he did last season and winning the league, manager of the season. With the issues and the problems they've had at Liverpool this year, then yeah, I do,” he said when asked if Slot deserved to stay. “If it were my choice, I would have him as manager, yeah.”
So the debate is split. The achievements of last season still carry weight. The regression of this one cannot be ignored.
While the spotlight naturally falls on the man in the dugout, Micah Richards turned his fire on those on the pitch – and, more specifically, those brought in to refresh a title-winning squad.
“I think where the scrutiny comes is the signings. They've not worked,” the former Manchester City defender said, with Shearer nodding along. “(Alexander) Isak has been injured, Wirtz has not been at the level we all expect, Frimpong is your right winger, your right-back, it's not really working out.
“(Milos) Kerkez has been a shadow of the player who was at Bournemouth. I don't know if that's pressure or if that's the system.”
That list cuts to the heart of Liverpool’s current malaise. A club that once seemed to hit on every major signing now finds its recruitment questioned. Players who were supposed to inject dynamism and depth have instead added uncertainty.
Richards did not stop there.
“Liverpool are too slow, too passive, they're too easy to play against,” he said. “What you normally associate Liverpool with is being aggressive, hard to beat, work-rate, especially under Klopp and they're none of those things. I'd like the manager to get a chance to turn those things around.”
It is a damning assessment of a side that, under Klopp, built its identity on intensity. Opponents used to dread the press, the relentlessness, the sense that Liverpool would simply overwhelm you. This version, in the eyes of one former Premier League defender, has lost that edge.
The symbolism is hard to miss. Mohamed Salah, the forward who came to define Klopp’s Liverpool, is expected to leave Anfield at the end of the season. He missed the defeat at Old Trafford through injury but is tipped to return for the final three games. One last act before the curtain falls on a remarkable era.
Slot was also without Alexander Isak and Alisson against United, robbing him of his first-choice goalkeeper and a key attacking weapon. After the game, he offered a cautious update.
“Alisson hasn't trained with us yet, so that makes it quite simple,” he said. “We're hoping for him to be ready next week, but we have to wait and see how the week will go. The same can be said about Alex - we're hoping to have him back next week.”
Those absences matter. So do the numbers: 11 league defeats for the reigning champions, a team still clinging to a Champions League place but miles from the standards they set.
Some see mitigation – injuries, transition, the weight of following Klopp. Others see warning signs – a drop in intensity, a recruitment strategy under scrutiny, a fanbase eyeing a familiar hero in Alonso.
Lineker’s prediction will not decide Liverpool’s future. It does, however, capture the mood around a club at a crossroads.
If the hierarchy believe Slot can restore the edge Richards says has gone, he stays and leads a rebuild without Salah and with those big signings under pressure to finally deliver.
If they do not, one question will dominate Anfield all summer: is this the moment Xabi Alonso walks back through the door he once lit up as a player, this time to take the seat in the dugout?
