Liverpool make Arne Slot sack decision as Alonso ‘contrast’ and net spend among five reasons | OneFootball

Fenway Sports Group want Arne Slot to remain Liverpool manager next season as a report details five reasons they will persist with the Dutchman.

The humbling 2-0 defeat to PSG on Wednesday, in which Slot opted to play five at the back and was roundly criticised for his negative tactics, was the Reds’ 17th defeat in all competitions this season; the most of any defending Premier League champion in history.

They’re currently 21 points behind league-leaders Arsenal, facing a battle to qualify for the Champions League with the worst run-in of any of the challengers to finish in the top five.

Slot admitted after the PSG defeat that his side were in “survival mode” and yet The Telegraph claim that the expectation that the 47-year-old will be dismissed at the end of the season, if not before, is ‘at odds with the mood from FSG and club chiefs Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes.

‘The consensus is that Slot deserves to start next season, and that the transition from Jürgen Klopp in the summer of 2024 was not as simple as last season’s Premier League title indicated,’ the report states.

FSG see the death of Diogo Jota as ‘mitigation for performances’ along the with dramatic drop-off in the form of key players, namely Mohamed Salah, who’s announced his departure from the club, and Virgil Van Dijk.

Both starred as Liverpool cruised to the title last season and Van Dijk’s admission on Wednesday night that it was “the end of an era” for members of Jurgen Klopp’s side was borne out through Andy Robertson also announcing he would be leaving at the end of the season on Thursday.

The report also claims that the club believes Slot ‘deserved four transfer windows before a judgement is made’ as Klopp had five windows before winning his first trophy, the Champions League in 2019.

A lot has been made of the £450m spent last summer but ‘the club estimate their net spend at around £150m under their manager’.

The club want to ‘persevere’ with Slot until the end of next season when his contract comes to an end when the deals of sporting director Hughes and football chief executive Edwards also expire.

They both ‘planned to stay for the contracted three years and no longer’, with the report suggesting Liverpool like the neatness of all three leaving at the same time, or at least their futures being decided at the same point.

And finally, the fifth reason FSG want to stick with Slot is the doubt they have over his widely-expected successor Xabi Alonso.

Alonso is available after being sacked by Real Madrid in January but the former Liverpool midfielder’s decision to stay at Bayer Leverkusen when the Reds were looking to replace Klopp at the helm appears to have rubbed the club hierarchy the wrong way.

‘That unwillingness to follow Klopp, one of the club’s greatest managers, contrasted with Slot’s enthusiasm for the challenge, continues to figure in the thinking at the club,’ the report concludes.