Slot faces increasing ‘internal scrutiny’ at Liverpool with Hughes ‘key’ to Iraola appointment | OneFootball

Liverpool are being linked with a move to Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iraola as Arne Slot’s position at Anfield seems increasingly uncertain.

The Reds lost 4-2 to Aston Villa on Friday in a terrible result that leaves them with the possibility of missing out on Champions League football next season.

After looking like comfortably making the top five not that long ago, Liverpool have taken just one point from three matches, leaving sixth-placed Bournemouth with an outside chance of snatching fifth position from the Reds.

Results and performances in recent weeks have not been good enough and Mohamed Salah exacerbated the situation by hitting out at Liverpool’s form and Slot’s style of play in a social media post after their loss at Villa Park.

Salah wrote: “I have witnessed this club go from doubters to believers, and from believers to champions. It took hard work, and I always did everything I could to help the club get there. Nothing makes me prouder than that.

“Our crumbling to yet another defeat this season was very painful and not what our fans deserve. I want to see Liverpool go back to being the heavy metal attacking team that opponents fear and back to being a team that wins trophies.”

That has led to fresh doubts as to whether Slot will remain at Liverpool next season with fans increasingly unhappy at the way things are going under the Dutchman, who won the Premier League title in his first campaign at Anfield.

And now our friends at TEAMtalk have claimed that Liverpool ‘hold a strong admiration’ for Bournemouth head coach Iraola with the Spaniard ‘earmarked as a possible successor’ to Slot.

It is understood that Iraola is ‘open’ to a move to Germany, where he also has attracted admiring glances, but he ‘has firm admirers at Liverpool and a firm approach from the Reds could alter things drastically’.

TEAMtalk make it clear that ‘no formal talks have taken place’ between Iraola and Liverpool but that Reds sporting director Richard Hughes would be a ‘key figure’ in a potential move for the former Rayo Vallecano manager.

Slot’s future at Liverpool is ‘not as secure as the club’s public messaging has suggested’ with recent results, performances and Salah’s public criticism ‘intensifying scrutiny internally’.

Reacting to Salah’s comments over the weekend, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher told Sky Sports: “I’m not surprised. I told everybody, Something else will come before the end of the season. He’ll drop another bomb, a little bit like Ronaldo did on the way out of Manchester United.

“I thought it might come after the end of the season when he’d moved on, but no. Less than two years ago, I called him selfish for doing an interview, and I think that rings true again. Liverpool has a really important week. They are still not fully qualified for the Champions League, and it should be about Liverpool FC, not Salah FC.”

Fellow pundit Gary Neville added: “He’s pulled the pin out of a grenade right in the middle of the room, and he’s walking out. Mo’s not happy over there. It’s not great. If he was a Manchester United player, I’d be fuming. But what you can never do with this kind of player, with this kind of stature and personality, is keep them quiet.

“If they’ve got something to say, they’re going to say it. And they’re going to say it at the point where you don’t want to hear it. That was a telling comment. Arne Slot will not welcome it whatsoever. But he will just want to get to the end of the season, get out of there, get everyone out of there that’s not going to be there next season, and try and build.”