The pressure on Liverpool manager Arne Slot to turn around what has been a disappointing season is now higher that it’s ever been. Despite leading the Reds to a Premier League title last season, time waits for no one in top level management, and with Xabi Alonso on the market, pressure has now been ramped up for Slot. In an alternative timeline, Alonso would’ve been the man who Liverpool moved on from club legend Jurgen Klopp for, but things didn’t align at the time while he was in the midst of a successful tenure with Bayer Leverkusen.
How to watch Liverpool vs. Burnley, odds
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 17 | Time: 10 a.m. ET
- Location: Anfield — Liverpool, England
- TV: USA
- Odds: Liverpool -450; Draw +550; Burnley +1000
But now, Alonso is gone from Real Madrid after only seven months, and Liverpool are trying to secure a Champions League spot for next season while the title race is already out of their reach. After a summer of spending that included adding former players under Alonso in Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, there are too many connections to draw of why the Reds would consider making a change during the summer if Slot doesn’t turn things around.
Liverpool is still a club where the manager can have input from the top down and look to instill a culture stopping the issues leading to Alonso’s Real Madrid departure from repeating themselves, but it creates a tenuous situation for Slot. Managing a club is hard enough when a replacement to do the job is on the market, and now, with any poor performance, whispers will arise of when Alonso will come in to right the ship.
Even facing a team like Burnley, now anything but an emphatic victory won’t be enough for the Reds to move past this. Slot also has the added challenge of integrating Mohamed Salah back into the squad after Egypt finishes Africa Cup of Nations duty. During Salah’s absence, Wirtz has been able to get back to being more of a ball-dominant player, turning in some of his best performances in a Liverpool shirt with two goals and an assist in his last five Premier League matches. It may not seem like buch but when Wirtz didn’t register a single attacking return in the league until December third, it’s quite an uptick in production for the young attacker.
Slot has his work cut out for him, and Champions League play is also on the verge of returning giving the Reds even more matches to deal with. If they can string together wins in them, it will help change the vibes around a club who have drawn three consecutive league matches, but they also run the risk of deepening their spiral.
Under Slot, Liverpool have been able to be extremely consistent, and it led them to a league title, but that has all gone out the door this season after starting off unbeaten in their first five league matches. In a managerial world where you look at what a manager has done for you now instead of their past success, these are the kinds of runs that can lead to shifts of who is in charge so Anfield will be a place to watch.
