Arne Slot’s excellence against Dutch clubs propelled him to Liverpool. Now it is a sign of how everything seems to be going wrong for Slot that even that prowess appears to have deserted him, that a humiliation at the hands of a club from his homeland prompted him to admit it is normal to wonder if he can remain at Anfield.
As Peter Bosz was the Dutch master in the dugout, adding the scalp of the champions of England to their Italian counterparts, scarcely believably, Liverpool suffered a ninth defeat in 12 games, and they did not just lose. They were hammered in historic fashion by PSV Eindhoven.
Twelfth in the Premier League, 13th in the Champions League, hit for four by PSV, this is crisis time for Slot and Liverpool. “It is a shock for everyone, for the players, for me, this is very unexpected,” he said.
The realist in him accepted that the scale of Liverpool’s slide is such that talk of the sack has emerged. But not, he said, from Liverpool’s powerbrokers.
“I am feeling safe, I am okay. I have got a lot of support from above,” he explained. “It would be nice to turn it around and get a victory but if you are working as a coach and not doing well, then it is normal that questions are asked. I am ok with my position. They don't call every single minute of the day to say they trust me. In the normal conversations we have, I feel the trust.”
Which, perhaps, may need to be repaid. The Anfield public delivered a less flattering verdict with boos on the final whistle; they might have been louder, but many had already left. They had seen enough; plenty had come to that decision even before Couhaib Driouech’s second goal.
It meant that, for the first time since 1953, Liverpool have lost three consecutive games by three goals. And that, by way of context, came in the last season when they were relegated. This was also Liverpool’s joint-heaviest European defeat at Anfield, but the other came to Real Madrid. PSV came to Anfield as underdogs and yet emulated them.
Now Liverpool’s fortress has been breached twice in five days, first by Nottingham Forest and now by PSV, recording famous triumphs. Liverpool contrived to be the most accommodating of hosts by making a series of errors, from the bizarre to the sadly predictable. They descended into a shambles; it is almost becoming a ritual.
Slot had said it was ridiculous the number of goals Liverpool had let in this season. Four more took the tally to 34. It is an understatement to say the latest were avoidable. There were different types of defensive shortcomings; the first was almost inexplicable, the other three rather too familiar.
Liverpool’s malaise looked to have affected even an uncharacteristically jittery Virgil van Dijk. The captain had admitted Liverpool were in a mess. He compounded it with an impromptu display of goalkeeping, a raised arm tipping away Joey Veerman’s corner, to bring an early breakthrough. The centre-back argued he was pushed by his Netherlands teammate Jerdy Schouten. Referee Alejandro Hernandez disagreed, and Ivan Perisic slotted in the penalty.
On a quest for redemption, Van Dijk headed Mohamed Salah’s corner onto the bar. Yet a cathartic comeback eluded him. This was the 10th time in 12 matches that Liverpool let in the opening goal. But as in some others, they pulled level only to drop behind again.
“I don’t think this is the time to emphasise individual errors,” said Slot. There were almost too many to document. For the second goal, Mauro Junior escaped from Salah with rather too much ease and delivered a lovely cross. Guus Til got in ahead of Milos Kerkez to supply the finish. It was a fifth goal in three games for the Dutchman. It was yet another goal Liverpool have conceded this season via a cross to the far post. It was another, too, that they have conceded to a counterattack.
Ibrahima Konate’s mistakes have been all too frequent and he managed to miss the ball to free PSV to score the third. It came from a combination of substitutes, Ricardo Pepi hitting the post and Driouech rolling in the rebound. There was a time when Slot’s use of replacements appeared that inspired. Now it was Bosz, with a triple change, who got an immediate reward. One of those reinforcements, Driouech, completed a brace in injury time from Serginio Dest’s cutback.
Liverpool’s sole goal came from Dominik Szoboszlai, slotting in after the former PSV winger Cody Gakpo had a shot parried. For Slot, restoring the Hungarian to midfield was a rare decision to pay off. Yet little else worked. Hugo Ekitike was brought back into the team and showed the sharpness Alexander Isak had conspicuously lacked against Forest, but he went off with a back spasm. Isak came on, to little effect, as Federico Chiesa again proved a livelier substitute.
Yet Driouech proved the real super-sub, hoisting his man-of-the-match award in front of the PSV public as if it were a major trophy, and to huge cheers.
A Liverpool supporter, meanwhile, delivered his own verdict on their slide. “I’m a fan, and I’ve seen this club all my life,” said Curtis Jones. “In a long, long time, I haven’t experienced a Liverpool team going through a period like this with results like these. Right now, we’re in the s*** and it needs to change.”
And that, in turn, prompts the question if managerial change is needed.
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