It’s results that will get managers sacked but sometimes attitude can accelerate that process. This is the reality and the fear that stalks Liverpool manager Arne Slot as he travels to Paris with his team.
Slot is deep in sacking territory now. The excuses – rarely articulated by Slot but based in truth all the same – that have served as mitigating circumstances all season still stand.
He lost three-quarters of a Premier League winning strike force in one summer and then – in mind, body and soul – he lost Mo Salah, too. His big summer signing, Alexander Isak, has spent his debut Anfield season short of match fitness and then with a broken leg.
But with the season’s end almost upon us, Liverpool’s decline has gone beyond all that.
As was evidenced at Manchester City on Saturday, Slot now presides over a group of players no longer willing or able to consistently do the very basics of the game for him.
When you get to that stage as a manager, the next one normally involves the packing of a bag.
Arne Slot is close to the sack – he is faced with a group of players no longer willing to do the basics for him
Daily Mail Sport’s Ian Ladyman had a brief exchange with Slot after Liverpool’s defeat by Manchester City
In the Etihad press room on Saturday afternoon, I had a brief exchange with Slot.
Having watched his team concede two goals – the second and the third – that started with their own throw-ins and having witnessed experienced players fail to track runners – Florian Wirtz – and block a cross – Virgil van Dijk – for the second it felt pertinent to ask him why he thought that was.
My language was possibly vaguely blunt but sometimes it has to be.
Surely you expect better, whether you are on a Premier League field or a Sunday park pitch? These are, after all, the minimum requirements.
‘I don’t agree with what you are saying, but in moments you’re completely right,’ said Slot.
‘If you tell me from the 15 runs Man City is making, 15 times my players don’t run, I disagree with you.
‘But if you simply look at the goals, there I see runs that are not being followed, I see crosses that are not being blocked, I see duels in front of goal that are not won, then you are completely right.
‘That’s not the story of the whole game, but every single time we forget to block a cross, we forget to defend in front of goal, we forget to follow a runner, every single time it’s a goal.’
Virgil van Dijk (pictured) and Florian Wirtz (pictured) were both at fault defensively for Liverpool against City
Revisited now two days after the game, that assessment feels even more pertinent, more damning. The use of the word ‘forgot’ is quite startling.
Slot isn’t one to deflect upfront questions with aggression or sarcasm. Equally, his honesty – for all it was buried in a vague attempt at denial – tells us much of what we need to know as Liverpool somehow attempt to breathe life into their season ahead of a two-legged Champions League quarter-final against Paris St Germain.
The truth is that Liverpool’s players this season have become far better at saying the right things than they are at doing them. On the field, they tend to do things correctly up until the very moment that they stop. And when they stop, they die.
On this occasion, it was van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai doing the post-match interviews. Van Dijk – the captain – always fronts up but too often this season he has been central to the collective malfunction that has taken this team from the stars to the gutter.
In football, players don’t stop trying on purpose. They don’t switch off at the big moments because they want to. They don’t fail to make up the crucial half yard because they are happy to concede a goal or lose a football match.
No, they do all this when something deep in their sub-conscious changes, when a switch is flicked from go to stop. It can only be a five or 10 per cent drop off at times but when you are facing a team like City or indeed PSG then it’s the difference between sporting life and death.
Slot is in his own personal red zone, for sure, now and he will only save himself if he finds a way to deliver a shot of belief, energy, confidence and sheer will into these players before they walk out on to the field in Paris on Wednesday night.
Nothing we saw on Saturday in Manchester or heard in the media auditorium afterwards will fill Liverpool supporters with belief. A draw or narrow defeat will at least give a decent man and a good coach one last shot at it at Anfield a week later.
The alternative storyline should come with a health warning attached.
Slot will only save himself if he can deliver energy and belief to his players before they face PSG this week
MARTINELLI HAS FORM FOR A PUSH
Gabriel Martinelli’s push to the shoulder of referee Sam Barrott as Arsenal lost at Southampton was not malicious or delivered with particular force. There was also doubtless some frustration at seeing his teenage team-mate Max Dowman fouled yet again at St Mary’s.
However, it’s strange that Barrott and now it seems the FA deemed a yellow card punishment sufficient.
Arsenal’s players are bound to feel protective of Dowman, making his way in the game at the age of sixteen but at the same time they are not his minders. Once a game starts, he is no different to any other player.
The simple fact is that Martinelli placed his hands on a match official and as such should have been sent off.
In an age of ever declining standards of respect for officials at all levels, referees and indeed the governing bodies have to take opportunities to draw lines in the sand when they can.
This feels like an opportunity missed and football – from the Premier League stadiums to the Sunday parks pitches – will be the poorer for it.
*Martinelli also has form for the odd ‘harmless’ shove. He did the same to Liverpool’s Conor Bradley after the Northern Irishman injured his knee at the Emirates back in January. Bradley hasn’t played since that day.
Gabriel Martinelli (right) should have been sent off for his push on referee Sam Barrott (centre)
SAINTS KIT ROW MAKES SENSE
It was lovely to see Southampton rocking memories of their 1976 FA Cup success by wearing the iconic yellow and blue jersey that evokes memories of that sunny Wembley triumph over Manchester United 50 years ago.
They now face a conversation with the FA about whether they will be allowed to wear it for their semi-final against Manchester City.
At first sight, it seems a little petty that clubs are not generally allowed to wear kits they hadn’t registered at the start of the season in the semi-final and final but there is clear method behind it.
If the rule is designed to stop clubs fleecing fans by bringing out ‘commemorative’ kits every time they reach Wembley, then I am all for it.
That may not be what’s happened here – Southampton have been wearing yellow in every round – but unfortunately for them that’s not the point.
BLAME TV, NOT NUNO, FOR WEST HAM FAIL
Beneath all the drama of West Ham’s ultimately fruitless comeback against Leeds was disquiet among home supporters about Nuno Espirito Santo’s decision to pick an under-strength team.
West Ham made five changes from their last Premier League game while Leeds made only three. The Hammers improved beyond measure once the cavalry came off the bench which means obvious assumptions were made.
But before Nuno stands charged of disrespecting the competition and failing to understand what a Wembley semi-final against Chelsea would have meant to West Ham fans (a lot), it’s worth considering the impact of the TV scheduling.
Nuno Espirito Santo picked an under-strength team for West Ham against Leeds because of his side’s busy schedule
West Ham face Wolves in the league this Friday night while Leeds do not play again until a week today. That’s a five-day turnaround compared to eight days and as such constitutes a huge difference.
Live Premier League TV picks for April were already known by the time the FA announced their cup scheduling on March 13, which begs the question as to why West Ham were asked to play last on Cup weekend.
Nuno’s team have won only once in regulation time in any competition since the end of January and are still in the Premier League bottom three.
Had you been in his shoes would you honestly have played this any differently?
ONE SHOT OF DANNY WAS ONE TOO MANY
I only caught added time, extra-time and penalties of the West Ham game but was still thoroughly tired of TNT’s Danny Dyer cut-aways as Jarrod Bowen’s father-in-law watched from the directors’ box.
How many times was I reminded of Dyer’s presence? It must have been half a dozen.
Once would have been enough. None would have been better. There was a game on, after all.
Quite a good one.
Danny Dyer was regularly seen on television during the game – one shot was too many
HERRICK ALREADY HAS BAD HABITS
With Leeds winning, we were denied the fairytale story of 20-year-old West Ham goalkeeper Finlay Herrick becoming the hero of the hour.
Given the way he was bad mouthing the Leeds penalty takers as they prepared to take their kicks, we maybe will not lament this too much.
FINAL DAY DRAMA BECKONS
Far away from the glamour of the world’s most famous cup competition, the fight for EFL status goes on in the National League.
With only four games to go, York and Rochdale are tied at the top with 98 points. Only one will go up automatically with the other banished to a six-team play-off scrap.
Oh, and they are due to play each other at Rochdale’s Spotland Stadium on the final day of the season.
No pressure.
WILL BANNAN BE AN OWL ONCE AGAIN?
It’s almost as tight at the top of the Championship where Millwall’s win at Middlesbrough gives the London club the advantage for the second automatic spot ahead of Monday’s fixtures.
Josh Coburn’s late winner sealed Millwall’s win at the Riverside with the assist coming from the evergreen Barry Bannan.
Now 36, Bannan ended his 10-year stint at Sheffield Wednesday in January after 477 appearances and is now six games away from returning to the Premier League where he last played for Crystal Palace eleven years ago.
Talk of Barry Bannan returning to Sheffield Wednesday from Millwall is gathering pace
That’s the theory but as Wednesday – still deep in takeover turmoil – prepare for life in League One next season, talk of Bannan coming ‘home’ is gaining pace.
‘Barry is a legend here and I love Barry,’ Owls manager Henrik Pedersen said at the weekend.
‘We are waiting for the takeover. We are working in the background to analyse the market. But to speak about specific players, it is too early.’
That’s not a ‘no’ then.
