Slot sacked by Christmas as Salah rift opens up in six Liverpool fiascos
The reigning Premier League champions have lost six of their last seven games but we need MORE to see the back of Arne Slot after all of that annoying credit he has in the bank after winning the Premier League.
He made the kids part of the misery on Wednesday in a game which can offer a footnote to his list of misdemeanours come judgement day, but with the Liverpool hierarchy making no plans to dismiss him anytime soon, weâve come up with six fiascos â results, decisions, key events, complaints â to push them into sacking the Dutchman by Christmas.
Tolerating Milos KerkezÂ
The ÂŁ40m summer signing is an ongoing case study for those operating on the assumption that performance level bears a direct relationship to game time, testing the working theory that someone whoâs playing well will be afforded more minutes than someone who is not.
No Liverpool player has featured in as many games as Kerkez (14), whose only rest was â perhaps tellingly â in the 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt. And yet, he has arguably been the worst of a heroically bad Liverpool bunch this season.
He was one of just two first-team stars, along with Alexis Mac Allister, to be rolled out for the inevitable defeat to Crystal Palace on Wednesday, despite being the guy who should have been taken out of the firing line, with shots consistently and increasingly aimed in his direction in recent weeks.
It will have been hard for Kerkez not to see his retention as a punishment â it certainly wasnât a reward. And the Reds fans can only hope that it represented something of a last chance for the 21-year-old to prove his worth â one he didnât take â rather an indication of just how crucial Slot believes him to be to his side now and going forward.
Andy Robertson isnât what he was, but he at least knows what he should be doing, whereas Kerkez hasnât looked as though he even recognises where he is most of the time since arriving in the summer.
Squad complaints
âOur squad is probably not as big as people think it is. There has not been a change in the way we look at this,â Slot said after the Crystal Palace defeat when asked about his decision to leave the vast majority of his stuttering stars out of his squad.
He added: âI saw Manchester Cityâs starting eleven and they didnât have one starter from the weekend, but it felt like their best team. That is a bit of an insight. Chelsea can bring Estevao in. After I made two substitutions tonight, we had six teenagers.â
Enzo Maresca did also bring Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Pedro Neto off the bench though, while Pep Guardiola introduced first XI regulars Phil Foden, John Stones and Josko Gvardiol to see their game out. Whereas Slot had no recourse to recover the game through substitutions, with the clash all but over at half-time thanks to the rest he afforded Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk et al.
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While we donât necessarily disagree that Liverpool have inferior squad depth compared to City, Chelsea or Arsenal, the Reds hierarchy could viably question why Slot as good as ceded this Carabao Cup tie to Palace rather than at least sticking some of the players theyâve signed him at great cost on the bench to offer some hope of staying in the competition.
And Slot must know that the Liverpool headlines amid complaints about his squad, for the fans, in the media and in the minds of those above him who bought and sold players in the summer, will be the acquisition of some very talented footballers for over ÂŁ400m.
A sure way to thin the patience of decision-makers at Anfield will be for Slot to make the depth and quality of his squad one of his regularly trotted out gripes in his increasing list of excuses.
MAILBOX: Slot âgoing madâ at Liverpool and âcould be goneâ after next three games
Defeat to West Ham away
Itâs been suggested that Slot could be taken out back after the next three games against Aston Villa (H), Real Madrid (H) and Manchester City (A). Defeat in all three, a perfectly possible reality on current form, would at the very least see a glut of ânext Liverpool managerâ reports appearing on these pages and others, along with delicious leaks from discontented staff members, players and unnamed dressing room âinsidersâ.
But we suspect many of those stories will be frustratingly caveated by the Liverpool owners âretaining full faithâ in Slot thanks to him winning the Premier League last term. What we really need for that backing to waver is a stratospherically dismal result, and there is no worse than a defeat to West Ham at The London Stadium.
The clusterf*** of Liverpool losing to a Jarrod Bowen goal in front of the most miserable West Ham fans watching on in misery from the miserable stands in their miserable stadium, in which they have so far won no points and scored just two goals this season, would be impossible for the Reds hierarchy to ignore.
READ MORE: Arne Slot now genuine Sack Race contender with Liverpool in freefall, but still one clear favourite
Centre-back injury
Joe Gomez did an excellent job of ruling out future questions as to why heâs not been used more frequently by Arne Slot, or drafted in to replace Ibrahima Konate, with his performance on Wednesday night. Heâs played just over a thousand minutes of football under the Dutchman and performed like a man with such limited game time.
He was at fault for Ismaila Sarrâs opener, failing to clear the ball when it bounced his way, and looked a long way short of his peak, which is now five years old.
A third defeat to Marc Guehi in the space of less than three months has gloriously rubbed Liverpool faces in their failed bid to sign him on deadline day and Giovanni Leoniâs injury means that Gomez is Slotâs senior option to replace either Van Dijk or Konate should they too be ruled out, lest he push Wataru Endo into the backline, and we donât fancy his chances of coping with those darn âballs in the airâ.
Mohamed Salah rift
In flouncing off down the tunnel âin a stropâ having been left out of the starting lineup against Eintracht Frankfurt, Mohamed Salah laid down the gauntlet to Slot â âplay me or Iâm going to kick up a fussâ was the subtext.
His brilliant goal in the Brentford defeat has made Slotâs life somewhat easier, serving as a reminder to those questioning the Egyptianâs place in the team of the quality he can still provide. But with whichever poor, unprotected right-back who has to play behind him set to suffer when he plays, Salah will have to keep producing goals and assists to merit his spot.
Thereâs no amount of credit in the bank that can allow for such an inert passenger. Slot would have to drop him, at which point he would be sure to feel the full effect of player power at Anfield. We canât imagine a world in which Salah takes his ousting from the starting XI in good grace.
Kevin Danso for Cristian Romero
Of Slotâs many excuses for Liverpoolâs slump this season, our absolute favourite has to be when he suggested it was annoying that teams were making changes to their starting XI against Liverpool, which led an emboldened Brentford social media administrator to do Godâs work after their victory over the Reds last weekend.
Must have been that unchanged team đ
â Brentford FC (@BrentfordFC) October 25, 2025
This frustration would surely peak upon Thomas Frank dropping Cristian Romero when Liverpool come to town in the last Premier League game before Christmas in favour of Kevin Danso and his long throw.
Van Dijk and the lads still wonât know how to defend them, with Tottenham preying on that fact by spending the whole game running the ball to the touchline and waiting for Liverpool players to tackle them into touch.
Chaos in the Liverpool box ensues, Tottenham score a couple and then comfortably defend Liverpoolâs limp attempts to get themselves back into the game.
With Champions League qualification in doubt, amid dressing room fractures, increasingly bizarre excuses and a general acceptance that heâs not the man to turn things around, Slot is given his marching orders. Merry Christmas.
