ECHO sports editor and Liverpool Kop season ticket holder Richard Garnett shares his thoughts on the sacking of Arne Slot
Former Liverpool manager Arne Slot
Former Liverpool manager Arne Slot(Image: Jacob King/PA Wire)
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When a Liverpool manager starts drawing comparisons with Roy Hodgson amongst supporters, it usually spells trouble. And that is exactly the type of conversation the Dutchman was routinely mentioned in with growing regularity as one disappointing result followed another.
A long-standing fellow match-goer caused amusement in our group by claiming that you had to have six pints to watch the Reds under Hodgson. I only think he was half-joking, but there we were saying the same thing about Slot's second season.
Make no mistake, this has been a hideous campaign on the pitch for Liverpool and the drop off was absolutely alarming. On Friday, I was asked to record a short, quickfire Q&A segment for our social media team. One of the questions was 'Match of the Season'. I couldn't think of one.
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I eventually came up with the answer of the impressive 1-0 home win against Real Madrid, but not before scrolling back through the results on my phone to work out what I had actually enjoyed.
Football is a spectator sport and the landscape can change in a flash. On the same Kop terrace where I danced and hugged my son and oldest friend after finally witnessing the Reds lift the league title in front of a packed Anfield last April, in what was one of the greatest moments of my Liverpool-supporting life, here we now were being bored senseless by toothless, instantly forgettable performances that were devoid of any enjoyment.
Liverpool finished the season fifth and they were certainly no better than that. In fact, some may argue that they were fortunate to finish as high as that. The whole thing was absolutely baffling. Win the league at a canter, spend £448m on new star players, look worse and scrape Champions League qualification on a technicality. None of it makes sense.
Worse still is the fact that Slot, who has had to endure huge criticism over the course of the season, simply could not build on his maiden season triumph to establish a true connection with the fans. Liverpool supporters are renowned for giving their managers support and time to turn things around when things aren't going well, but patience in the Kop has been at breaking point for months and after such a huge summer transfer outlay flopped so feebly, it didn't stack up that a manager with 12 months left on his contract would be given another huge warchest to go and sign more players.
Speaking of the players, the idea that this season's miserable failure is all on the manager couldn't be further from the truth, as far as I'm concerned. The December bust-up with Mohamed Salah undermined Slot's authority and it became obvious to me soon afterwards that a number of players had seemingly downed tools.
Maybe they wanted him out? I think that is quite likely in some cases. But the attitude of the team whenever they faced literally any sort of adversity in a match told me that we were not all in this together.
It wouldn't bother me in the slightest if there was a huge clearout this summer, but regardless of that, something definitely had to change, and ultimately, it is easier to change a manager than an entire team. Playing midfielders as fullbacks, full-backs as wingers and wingers as centre-forwards hardly helped Slot's claim to the job, but I think the combination of so many poor results and a complete lack of connection with the fans, who had adored Jurgen Klopp so much, has done for him in the end.
Slot's departure is bittersweet for this writer. On one hand, I am relieved that his tenure is over, but on the other, I am grateful that he delivered the league title in front of the supporters that we have craved for most of our lives. I just hope that he realises that after the dust has settled, he will always be welcome back at Anfield.
The next Liverpool manager has a hell of a lot to sort out this summer. But that can wait until tomorrow. A new broom sweeps clean however, and any existing player who wants to be a part of this going forward will have to show that they really mean it or they will be following Slot out of Anfield.
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