‘The reason why…’ – Jamie Carragher agrees with Gary Neville over his stance on Arne Slot | OneFootball

Jamie Carragher believes that Arne Slot should be under no pressure in terms of his job as Liverpool head coach this season, echoing the thoughts of a prominent Sky Sports colleague.

Speaking 24 hours after the Reds’ heavy defeat at home to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Gary Neville claimed that any talk of the 47-year-old potentially being dismissed at Anfield is ‘nonsense’, having won the Premier League title only a few months ago.

Fabrizio Romano reported on Monday that the Dutchman continues to have the full backing of the LFC hierarchy, albeit with a self-acknowledgement that he needs to inspire a turnaround in fortunes soon after the champions slumped to 11th in the top-flight table over the weekend.

On Sky Sports‘ Monday Night Football, Carragher was asked for his thoughts on Slot’s position at Liverpool after an appalling run of eight defeats in 11 matches across all competitions (and six of the last seven games in the league).

Carragher gives his backing to Slot

While the pundit claimed that the incumbent head coach hasn’t yet earned the ‘unconditional love’ that Jurgen Klopp had from Reds fans, he insisted that ‘there should be no talk’ of him being ‘out of a job’ this season.

Indicating ‘the reason why’, he pointed to a chart which showed that the 47-year-old has won more of his first 50 games in charge of LFC than any manager going back to Bill Shankly.

Slot has also claimed the joint-highest points tally of anyone in that time, even when adjustments are made for those who were managing prior to 1981 when a win earned two points rather than three.

Image via Sky Sports Premier League

Slot still has more than enough credit in the bank

Despite Rio Ferdinand trying to stir a debate by claiming that Slot has been given a much easier ride from the media than Ruben Amorim when the latter was going through a prolonged bad spell at Manchester United, the Liverpool boss has far more credit than debit in his Anfield ledger so far.

It’s not unprecedented for a manager to be sacked within 12 months of winning the Premier League – it happened to Jose Mourinho at Chelsea and Claudio Ranieri at Leicester – but FSG appear to be far more patient than their counterparts at either of those two clubs in 2015/16 and 2016/17 respectively.

It must be remembered that Klopp wasn’t an overnight success on Merseyside – he finished eighth in his first season at the helm and went through an awful few weeks at the start of 2017 before ultimately securing Champions League qualification on the final day.

He mightn’t have had the chance to pull off that achievement and build a legacy had he been at a different club where owners are far more ruthless. If FSG didn’t dispense with him at that time, they’re unlikely to do so with Slot unless things drastically disintegrate.

The Dutchman needs a prolonged run of good results to pull Liverpool out of their current tailspin, but he’s more than earned the right to be trusted by a fan base who, for the most part, will continue to show him their full support.