Arne Slot knows the stakes. Liverpool’s season is sliding, the questions are getting sharper, and the shadow of Jurgen Klopp still stretches from the Kop to Boston.
He has, at least, been handed a clear blueprint for survival.
Slot under strain as Liverpool wobble
Slot stunned English football by winning the Premier League title in his first year at Anfield, stepping into the space Klopp left behind in the summer of 2024 and somehow filling it at the first attempt. That early shockwave of success bought him time, authority, and a degree of trust.
That credit is draining away.
A 4-0 hammering by Manchester City in the FA Cup quarter-finals left Liverpool bruised and embarrassed. The performance raised more than eyebrows; it raised doubts. At the same time, their league form has dipped to the point where Champions League qualification is no longer a given. The club that roared back to the top under Klopp now finds itself looking nervously over its shoulder.
And the pressure is about to tighten.
Liverpool head into a Champions League quarter-final against Paris Saint-Germain as clear underdogs. A heavy defeat on that stage, with the world watching, would not just hurt pride. It would push Slot closer to a decision nobody at Anfield wanted to confront so soon after a title win.
Jagielka’s simple message: back him – or sack him
On BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, former Sheffield United, Everton and England defender Phil Jagielka cut through the noise. For him, the path is obvious: if Liverpool want to judge Slot fairly, they must arm him properly.
“Give me next season,” Jagielka imagined Slot saying to Fenway Sports Group. “Give me a centre-half or two, give me a strike force that is fit, and you will see a different team.”
That, in Jagielka’s view, is the pitch. Not a grand manifesto. Not a romantic vision. A hard, footballing argument: strengthen the spine, fix the front line, then assess the manager.
Jagielka pointed to a summer misstep that still lingers. Liverpool “should have got a centre-half in the summer and didn’t,” he said, highlighting an area that has left Slot exposed. At the top end of the pitch, he noted they “have not had [Alexander] Isak,” acknowledging that even if the forward’s form before injury was patchy, his absence has stripped Liverpool of a key option.
Then there is the looming loss of Mohamed Salah. The club already knows the Egyptian will not be at Anfield next season. That reality forces a tactical rethink and removes one of the most complex selection puzzles any Liverpool manager has faced in recent years.
“That could be a slightly different formation, or maybe a bit less of a headache of how to play him,” Jagielka suggested. Without Salah, Slot’s attack will need reshaping, not just replacing.
Jagielka believes Slot can reasonably argue he has been “a bit unlucky or naive not getting another defender,” but the bottom line is clear: those are the positions where Liverpool have struggled, and those are the positions he will ask FSG to fix.
Three signings. Two centre-backs. One new forward option. That is the manager’s likely bargaining chip. Back me with that, Slot can say, and judge me then.
Klopp whispers grow louder
While Slot prepares his case, the past refuses to stay quiet.
In an interview with Football Insider, former Aston Villa and Everton chief executive Keith Wyness revealed that talk of a sensational Klopp return is doing the rounds in boardroom circles.
“There was one interesting thought the other day that somebody gave me, that there’s Bonnie Prince Jurgen waiting across the water to come back and reclaim his throne,” Wyness said.
It is a striking image: Klopp, the charismatic architect of Liverpool’s modern renaissance, cast as a pretender-in-waiting, ready to step back into power if summoned.
Wyness did not fully buy into the fantasy. He called it “a little bit fanciful,” yet admitted the rumour is “strongly circulating” in his network. In football, he reminded, nothing can be completely ruled out.
Even so, he sees another name as the more realistic long-term solution.
“Now, Xabi Alonso, to me, is still the favourite to take over,” Wyness added. The idea of Klopp returning “is a bit of a big dream,” he said, though he accepted it would be the “go-to fantastic solution” to jolt Liverpool’s support back into unfiltered optimism.
For Wyness, Liverpool fans “are going to have to get used to Xabi Alonso,” and he believes “that will be the move that will be made.”
FSG move early as decision looms
Behind the scenes, Liverpool’s hierarchy is not waiting for the final whistle on the season to start asking hard questions. The club has already brought its end-of-season review forward, a significant move that underlines the seriousness of Slot’s situation.
That review will pick apart the campaign: the title defence that has faltered, the recruitment gaps that were never plugged, the tactical shifts that have not always convinced. It will also weigh the cost of change against the risk of standing still.
Slot’s argument, as framed by Jagielka, is straightforward. Give him the defensive reinforcements he lacked last summer. Replace the firepower that injuries and Salah’s impending departure have stripped away. Then decide if he is the right man to lead a second cycle at Anfield.
The alternative is brutal but simple: accept that the Klopp era’s afterglow has faded, cut ties with his successor, and turn to the next big idea – whether that is the romance of Klopp’s return or the fresh, modern promise of Xabi Alonso.
Liverpool, a club that once prided itself on stability, now stands at another crossroads. The next conversation between Slot and FSG will not just shape his future. It may define what this team looks like for years to come.
