Opinion: Liverpool need a coach that improves players, not demands new ones | OneFootball

Great Coaches Improve Players, Stewards Demand Replacements

One of the most damning criticisms that can be levelled at Arne Slot after this season is not the results, the performances, or even the growing disconnect with the supporters.

It is his apparent inability to improve players.

The very best coaches elevate what they inherit. They identify weaknesses, develop strengths, and ultimately increase both the performance level and market value of the squad under their control. That has always been one of the key markers separating elite coaches from mere custodians.

Looking across Liverpool’s squad, it is genuinely difficult to identify many players who have improved under Slot’s leadership.

Rio Ngumoha has certainly progressed, but even that comes with caveats. His development feels as much a consequence of natural talent and exposure to senior football as it does elite coaching. In many ways, his opportunities have been limited rather than accelerated despite repeatedly showing himself capable of impacting games.

Beyond that, the list becomes alarmingly short.

Ryan Gravenberch has stagnated dramatically. Alexis Mac Allister has struggled to reach previous levels and looks infinitely worse. Cody Gakpo appears no closer to becoming a complete forward and looks slow and I’ll conditioned. Ibrahima Konaté has endured arguably his most inconsistent period at the club and perhaps leaves due to a lack of faith. Even experienced leaders such as Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson have often looked part of a team lacking structure, confidence, and clear coaching direction.

That should concern everyone at Liverpool.

Because when players stop improving, football clubs stop progressing.

Instead of enhancing the assets already available, the conversation has continually shifted towards new signings, more signings, and further recruitment. Eventually, supporters must ask why so many additions are supposedly required when a squad filled with international-level footballers is already present.

The answer often points back toward coaching.

Photo: IMAGO

Klopp Built Value, Slot Has Overseen Decline

One of Jürgen Klopp’s greatest achievements was not simply winning trophies.

It was improving players.

Time and time again, Klopp took good footballers and transformed them into elite performers. He increased their value dramatically and, in doing so, strengthened Liverpool’s position both on and off the pitch.

Players such as Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Jordan Henderson, Joël Matip, Joe Gomez, Curtis Jones and countless others developed significantly under Klopp’s guidance. Fringe players often left Anfield for substantial fees because they had become better footballers during their time at the club.

Liverpool benefited competitively and financially. That cycle became one of the foundations of the club’s success. Under Slot, that cycle appears broken.

There has been a growing emphasis on recovery sessions, reduced training intensity, and carefully managed workloads. While sports science and recovery remain important components of modern football, they cannot replace coaching. Players improve through repetition, instruction, challenge, and tactical education.

Too often this season Liverpool have looked like a team that trains to preserve rather than improve.

The physical conditioning has declined. The tactical cohesion has weakened. Individual development has stalled. Those trends cannot simply be dismissed as bad luck.

Ultimately, Liverpool does not need a steward whose primary answer is further recruitment every time problems emerge. They need a coach capable of maximising the resources already available and extracting levels from players they themselves did not know existed.

That is what Klopp did. That is what elite coaches do.

And after a season where Liverpool has looked slower, weaker, and less developed than the team Slot inherited, the argument for change becomes increasingly difficult to ignore.

Liverpool’s next appointment must be a developer of talent, not merely a manager of assets.