Arne Slot admitted his Liverpool side “lacked fighting spirit” during key moments of their 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final loss to Manchester City which has piled more pressure on the Reds boss.
Pressure on Slot intensifying ahead of PSG
All the goals came in an 18-minute period either side of the break as Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick and Antoine Semenyo added the other for City, who made it to an eighth consecutive FA Cup semi-final.
On the flip side, a miserable afternoon for Liverpool was summed up by Mohamed Salah’s penalty miss at 4-0 down.
Liverpool must quickly pick themselves up before Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg away to Paris St Germain, their last chance of silverware in a disappointing campaign, but there were worrying signs in Manchester.
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“The result speaks for itself,” Slot said. “It’s unbelievably disappointing. Losing is already disappointing but 4-0 in a quarter-final of the FA Cup against a team Liverpool played so many times against, of course it’s a big disappointment.
“The 20 minutes where we conceded four goals were not of our standard.”
Liverpool had started brightly with fine chances for Salah and Hugo Ekitike, but once Haaland opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 39th minute, then heading in a second in first-half stoppage time, there was only one likely outcome.
James Pearce says pressure is ramping up on Slot after Man City defeat
Sure enough, Semenyo added a third in the 50th minute and Haaland completed his hat-trick seven minutes later.
“I missed the fighting spirit in the first 10 minutes after half-time,” Slot said. “After it was a game where both sides accepted it was 4-0, but in that 10, 15 minutes we missed the fighting spirit, the willingness to win our duels or to make it difficult to pass, to cross, to finish.
“That is something we definitively have to do better on Wednesday.”
Liverpool chief a "massive admirer" of Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola
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TalkSPORT commentator Jim Proudfoot spoke live on air on Saturday evening, suggesting Slot could be sacked if the Reds suffer a heavy defeat in Paris.
And while that was simply his opinion, he did then share a real bombshell, revealing Richard Hughes is a "massive" fan of Andoni Iraola, who is out of contract at Bournemouth at the end of this season.
"Richard Hughes, Liverpool's technical director, is a massive admirer. Brought him in at Bournemouth, he's done nothing at Bournemouth that would mean his stock has dropped in any way.
"He's out of contract in the summer, and it wouldn't surprise me if he was one that they wanted to speak to, along with the likes of Xabi Alonso and everybody else."
Xabi Alonso is of course the name on everyone's lips, but despite his top level experience at Real Madrid and incredible treble-winning success with Bayer Leverkusen, it seems a different Spaniard could be the man Hughes is targeting.
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The Sky Blues ran rampant in Manchester.
Iraola has been a revelation at Bournemouth, playing some stunning football all while having his best players raided by bigger clubs, losing three quarters of his backline last summer in the shape of Milos Kerkez, Dean Huijsen and Illia Zabarnyi.
Jamie Redknapp has hailed the 43 year-old as "one of the best managers in football", claiming he's an "elite" coach who should be at a big club, and with Slot's days at Anfield seemingly numbered, this could be one to watch.