Jan Molby: Patience with Arne Slot Has Limits at Liverpool
Credit earned, questions asked and a future that needs defining
I’ve been around this club long enough to know when noise turns into something more serious. What we are seeing and hearing around Liverpool right now feels different to a few months ago. Back then, most people were talking about a blip. Now, it feels like a reckoning, or at least a proper moment of reflection. And at the centre of it all sits Arne Slot.
I want to be clear from the start. I am not calling for the manager to be sacked. I have sympathy for him. But sympathy does not mean ignoring what is right in front of us. This season has drifted into a strange place, where results, performances and direction are all being questioned at the same time. That is the dangerous bit.
Slot won the Premier League in his first season, and that buys you credit. It buys you time. But it does not buy immunity forever. What matters now is what happens next, and whether there is a sense that this team is moving forward or quietly going backwards.
Arne Slot under pressure but not on the brink
There is a lot of talk about trigger points, about how many games a club should tolerate before acting. I understand that discussion, but I also think it misses something important. Liverpool are not a club that panics easily. Despite the mythology, managers have been moved on before, but usually after long internal debate rather than a kneejerk decision.
From what I hear, the club’s position has been fairly consistent. As long as we are in the hunt for a top-five finish, there is no appetite to pull the plug. That might frustrate supporters who feel something needs to change immediately, but it tells you how the hierarchy is thinking.
There is also a feeling inside the club that the obvious alternative names being thrown around are not clearly better. Xabi Alonso is admired, but admiration is not the same as certainty. He has won the league in Germany, which is an achievement, but Slot has won the Premier League in England. That matters. You cannot just assume the next shiny name will fix everything.
What does worry me is this. If Slot survives the season, he starts the next one under enormous pressure. There will be very little goodwill left if performances do not improve quickly. That is not a great place for any manager to be, especially one trying to build something long-term.
