When Liverpool slumped through October, with a run of six losses in seven games at one point, there was a sense of unease but also a feeling it was too soon to say the word sacking out loud regarding the manager given the title won last season under Arne Slot and the tragedy of Diogo Jota over the summer.
Coming back from the November international break and dropping an absolute disasterclass of a result at Anfield in a 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, a side in the relegation places, that pushes
the Reds into the bottom half of the table, though. Fair or not, after that the media and fans are going to be talking about it.
Despite that, there remains a steady pushback against the idea, and the basis for it remains the same as why most were unwilling to fully engage in talk of a sacking a month ago despite for almost any other manager at almost any other club that would have been the story. Namely, last year’s title and the tragedy.
“I don’t think his job is in question,” insisted former Red Igor Biscan after the weekend’s defeat. “Even if he doesn’t win the league, just doing what he did last year and how difficult his job was, it was exceptional. Everybody was saying it would be extremely difficult to continue what Jurgen Klopp had done.”
“There is pressure, but for every manager at that level, there is always pressure but he is a quality manager and he deserves a lot of credit and he still needs time. There are so many new players, and you need time to make them all work together, but I’m really sure that they will start winning again very soon.”
All of what Biscan says is true, perhaps—though there isn’t now any even if to not winning the league. Liverpool this season aren’t going to do that. The question now is whether they qualify for the Champions League, and while hopefully things can be turned around it would seem reckless to bet on them doing that.
As for those new signings, the struggles to integrate a pair of £100M+ signings in Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak now almost into December is highly concerning. Perhaps most concerning, though, is that the squad appear comprehensively lost and it feels almost entirely separated from tactics and formations.
If it all does go back to the summer loss of Jota then fair or not, responsibility falls to the manager for not managing his players through a tragedy. The players look lost, but so too does Slot. Still, while there are games to play there’s always hope the next will be when an answer is found and things turn around.
