To say that Anfield’s collective patience has run out would be a fair statement, underlined by the boos that accompanied the full-time whistle after a dour performance in a 1-1 draw that gave Chelsea their first point in seven Premier League games.
Speaking after the match, Liverpool goalscorer Ryan Gravenberch told the media that “I think we don’t really deserve this [the boos] you know.”
That too is perhaps a fair statement, but it also seems to be oblivious as to where the boos were directed - to the man in the dugout, not the players on the pitch.
Liverpool fans have collectively lost faith in Arne Slot. There were angry scenes in the Kop, where the groundswell of opinion is now strongly against the Dutch coach's continued leadership of the club.
The issue isn’t just the results, although failing to win more games than you win isn’t exactly what is to be expected from a club that were aiming to win back-to-back titles. Seeing a horrendously out-of-form Chelsea arrive at Anfield, go a goal ahead early on, but then fail to press home that advantage against a vulnerable opponent, sums up why fans are so irate. It was just like Tottenham, who were on a five-game losing streak before they arrived at Anfield. Wolves’ last Premier League win? That was against Liverpool. These three results in recent months, for many, show how weak this team is.
“Hopefully in the next few games they won’t do the same,” said Gravenberch referring to the booing. With only one home game remaining, that might depend on the performance on the pitch, as that is the crux of the issue; the performances are lacking anything to get fans on side.
Fans want to see a brand of football that they can get behind, see actual progress and a clear identity. Instead, they see exceptionally slow, passive football, a lack of intensity or urgency, and very little evidence that this team is going in the right direction. Defeats or disappointing results happen; that’s football. But the manner of Liverpool’s 19 league games they haven’t won this season is what underpins the fans’ loss of faith in a manager who led the club to a league title 12 months ago.
Has any manager, at any club, recovered from this situation before?
Slot was asked whether he believes he can win fans back around, saying, “yeah, I do,” then admitting, “Not this season, by the way. This season they will have their opinion, and it will not change.” The 47-year-old added that his confidence in winning fans back around is built around what he expects to happen this summer: “If we can have the summer that we are planning to have, then I’m 100 per cent convinced that we will be a different team next season than we are now, different in terms of results, different in how things look.”
Although even that was caveated by adding: “But it’s not always that simple, because sometimes you know what you have to do, but it’s not always possible to also get exactly what you want.”
Such words have echoes of what was reported of his personality prior to his arrival at Anfield, when a deep-dive from The Athletic noted Slot’s “forthright personality” and being “used to getting what he wants.”
Slot, who was said in the same report to be “antagonistic,” seemingly hasn’t got what he wanted this season. That appears to be the point he is now making. Whether that is quite simply the results and performances he wanted, or a more pointed issue with recruitment last summer that left his squad unbalanced, isn’t clear.
The narrative in recent months, as Liverpool’s season has unravelled beyond anything anybody predicted going into the campaign, has been around this being a season of transition, with Slot last week admitting that there will be further such transition this summer, but “probably not as drastic as it was last summer.”
But a transition season should not see a club finish 20 points worse off than the season before. The Reds achieved 84 points a year ago, a total that should have been much higher if they hadn’t ended the season on a four-game winless run after winning the league. This season, 59 points is the current total, so a maximum of 65 can be achieved if they go on to win their final two fixtures against Aston Villa and Brentford, something that seems unlikely given both Liverpool’s current form and those two are fighting for European places.
For Slot, he should be thankful that such a low number of points will achieve the absolute minimum aim of achieving Champions League qualification for next season; last season, 66 points were required.
This is no longer a case of the jury being out on the manager, but the result is in. It will take a convincing argument to overturn it from here.
