Liverpool prove Carragher right as Watkins, Aston Villa put Arne Slot on the brink | OneFootball

Arne Slot spent the week telling everyone he has “every reason to believe” he will be Liverpool manager next season. He is either in for a shock, or supporters should strap in for another year of misery.

Friday’s Premier League defeat at Aston Villa spells bad news for Slot or Liverpool fans because it was possibly their worst performance in a season full of shambolic showings.

Liverpool have now lost 12 times in the Premier League this season. They have only lost more in four 38-game campaigns and that, coupled with what we have seen on the pitch – not just in the table – surely means Slot is nowhere near as safe as he believes he is.

Liverpool’s only threat against Villa came from set-pieces, with Virgil van Dijk heading in two Dominik Szoboszlai deliveries to make the scoreline a very flattering 4-2 for the visitors.

There has been a lack of identity all season and it appears Slot is now relying on set-pieces and Rio Ngumoha, a child, to produce something out of nothing. It has just been so, so terrible, and Friday’s defeat should be the final straw for the Reds hierarchy.

Before the game, Jamie Carragher reminded us of that old Manchester United tweet by saying the following about Liverpool:

So, they are not good at…anything?

Yep. Spot on, actually.

Villa outplayed them from start to finish and it is a miracle they only scored four, and that Liverpool somehow managed to snag two.

For how miserable Slot’s side were, Unai Emery and his players deserve plenty of praise, putting on a show for their supporters in their final home game of the campaign to send them off to Istanbul for Wednesday’s Europa League final.

It is shaping up to be a historic campaign for the Villans, with Champions League football secured through their league position and a potential trophy coming next week.

They opened the scoring with an outstanding Morgan Rogers curler – thanks to some pedestrian Liverpool defending – and sealed the win with an outstanding John McGinn curler late on, with an Ollie Watkins brace sandwiched in between.

Watkins was an absolute menace all evening despite taking a knock to his hip after eight minutes. It felt like his night was done and his Europa League final was in jeopardy, only for him to fire Villa to a brilliant victory and surely secure his place in England’s World Cup squad as Thomas Tuchel’s second option to Harry Kane.

His performance up front was head and shoulders above what the anonymous Cody Gakpo produced for Liverpool.

Gakpo’s performances have rightly been heavily criticised this season, but Slot’s persistence in playing his fellow Dutchman has been the true issue among the Liverpool fanbase.

Slot’s favouritism has hindered Liverpool all campaign, but it is obviously not the biggest reason for their pitiful title defence. Unsurprisingly, it is his tactics – or lack thereof – that take the cake.

The best decision he made on a miserable night was to keep Ngumoha on for his first full 90 minutes in a Liverpool shirt. He was the only player who looked like producing anything from open play and struck the post with a terrific long-range effort after cutting in from the left – something we are going to see an awful lot of for many, many years. Hopefully not the post part, but the trademark cutting in.

Ngumoha’s emergence is one of the very few positives for Liverpool this season, yet it took Slot far too long to trust the 17-year-old, who is quite clearly the head coach’s best attacking option right now.

But Carragher is spot on with what he says; Liverpool are poor in possession and out of possession – just poor across the board.

There was no threat from open play besides Ngumoha cutting inside, both goals came from set-pieces, and every time Villa attacked, they seemed to have an overload and looked like scoring. It was a superb night tactically for Emery, but one of his easier assignments against Slot.

Indeed, poor in most aspects is what Liverpool have become under Slot. Talks about the summer transfer window and next season are purely academic at this stage because this is a team suffering an identity crisis.

Liverpool are crying out for a change in the dugout. Xabi Alonso is the obvious and outstanding candidate to replace Slot and it is pivotal Liverpool pounce on the opportunity to appoint the club’s former midfielder before he is snapped up by someone else, with Chelsea reportedly keen.

It would be an opportunity missed and, if Liverpool do not make a change in the summer, they will suffer another wasted season.

As things stand, it looks like Liverpool will pass up the Alonso opportunity because Slot knows where the club are going for their pre-season tour.

Yet Friday’s result and performance could – and should – be the eye-opener the Liverpool hierarchy needed. It was truly, truly awful from their perspective.