Fail to win Liverpool’s big games and pressure on Slot will be intolerable

Those frustrations grew after the subsequent loss and poor performance against Brighton and Hove Albion. It went beyond the usual noise from the social media agitators. That usually doesn’t end well for the manager, even if my instinct is to say it feels harsh.

My natural inclination is to back Slot because the title win is still fresh in the memory. The reason I want Slot to remain in charge in August is that it will mean Liverpool will have won the FA Cup or the Champions League.

The problem is that indifferent – or in some cases very poor – performances have been the norm for 12 months, going as far back as last year’s Carabao Cup Final defeat to Newcastle. That’s why so many are conflicted as they try to reach a conclusion on the next course of action. The longer this goes on, the greater the concern that it will continue to get worse. If Slot is a truly elite coach, why has he been unable to reverse this season’s alarming slide?

Do not go searching for another Klopp like United and Ferguson

Like many Liverpool supporters and former players, I have found the conversations regarding Slot’s future uncomfortable and unrepresentative of the club’s traditions. Or at least Liverpool as I would always wish them to be perceived.

Rival fans may mock the idea that Liverpool are different from those who hire and fire coaches more regularly, especially under the ownership of Fenway Sports Group (FSG). They can point to the speed with which Roy Hodgson was sacked in 2010, the swift exits of former sporting director Damien Comolli and manager Sir Kenny Dalglish in 2012, and Rodgers’ departure in 2015. FSG has shown its ruthless side, but the fact is there have only been 22 permanent Liverpool managers in the club’s entire history. Chelsea have had the same number since 1993.

If Slot leaves Liverpool a year after winning the Premier League title, it signals a more extreme sign of the times: no club is immune to impatience and intolerance when an expensively assembled squad keeps losing, regardless of the mitigating circumstances.

Manchester United would have considered themselves similar to Liverpool when Sir Alex Ferguson was in charge – proud of how much time and patience they granted managers. Ferguson was United’s 17th permanent appointment. They’ve had seven in the 13 years since he retired.

Football clubs can choose from many excellent coaches. The question is how many of them could be described as truly special

My fear is Liverpool supporters are already behaving like United fans in the aftermath of Ferguson’s departure. They are on such a quest to find the next Klopp – or a charismatic figurehead of similar status – that they will be willing to offload many good managers, season after season, in the potentially forlorn hope of finding the next superstar.

There is no other Klopp. He was a one-off. His presence at last weekend’s legends game at Anfield was a reminder of his aura.

Klopp was allowed to endure difficult periods during his Anfield reign because of the authority he possessed and the trust he built.

Slot does not carry the same weight yet, even though it is an inconvenient truth for those who wish to see everything through a modern lens: even the most successful managers can endure nightmare spells.

In 1981, Bob Paisley’s magnificent team won just 17 of their 42 league games. No-one remembers that because they ended the season parading the European Cup and League Cup.

In 1987, a year after winning the league and FA Cup double in his first season as player-manager, Dalglish’s Liverpool side went trophyless having lost 11 games in their title defence – one more than they have this season. A year later, most of the same players were considered part of Liverpool’s greatest-ever team.

Such peaks and troughs were once part of the game. Managers were allowed to grow into a job, building experience to the extent they were much better and more renowned when winning their last trophy than when lifting the first.

Alonso’s availability is shaping opinions of Slot

Slot is now a superior coach to the one who left Feyenoord two years ago. At 47, he is relatively young, so his peak management years are in front of him. This is the dilemma facing Liverpool’s ownership.

If you are a sporting director hunting for a world-class appointment, who are the alternative candidates to a coach who has already delivered a Premier League title? So far as Liverpool supporters are concerned, it seems all roads lead to Alonso.

There is such a romantic attachment to the former midfielder, and that is understandable. If Xabi were not available, would more be prepared to give Slot another season if this one ends in failure? My suspicion is yes. That’s certainly where I stand on the issue, although it cannot be ignored how backing an under siege manager in another summer transfer window can backfire. Carrying the baggage of a poor run into the next campaign can derail it before it has got going.

The fact that Alonso is unemployed will be part of the consideration, just as it was after Klopp left Borussia Dortmund in 2015. It was an open secret that Liverpool had hoped to meet Klopp when they appointed Rodgers three years earlier, just as they would have liked to have had Alonso as an option before he ruled himself out of the running in 2024.

Once Klopp was available, the club naturally revisited the possibility of hiring him, given how much the team was underperforming. History may repeat itself with Alonso.

The good news for Slot is that the situation isn’t irretrievable. The upcoming back-to-back games are an opportunity as much as a threat.

Slot has made no secret of sharing the football values of Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique, with both teams playing in a style he wants from his own teams.

If he can find the solutions to beat two of the best in the world this week, it will go a long way to converting those who have become Slot’s doubters back into believers.

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