Post-Klopp Liverpool: Patience Might Be the Point

There’s a proper Premier League pattern we’ve all seen by now: when a club loses a generation-defining manager, the fall-out can drag on for years. It’s rarely a clean handover. It’s more like a slow unpicking of habits, standards and identity that were built over a long time.

So when I look at Liverpool in the post-Klopp era, I can’t help but put it in that context first. Manchester United never really recovered their footing after Ferguson. Arsenal, after Wenger, needed time just to feel like themselves again. Chelsea are the odd one out, but they’ve often been operating with a different kind of safety net and they’ve swapped managers so often it’s become part of their model.

Perspective doesn’t mean pretending it’s fine

None of this is to say we should just accept any old level. The truth is, the way we’re playing at times has been tough to watch. Plenty of it has felt laboured, a bit uncertain, like the team is trying to find the right speed and the right spacing all at once.

That’s usually the giveaway in a transition. You can see the shape being built, but it doesn’t always marry up with the intensity. The press can look half a second late, the distances between players can stretch, and suddenly a match feels scrappy when it shouldn’t. We’ve all had those moments where you’re thinking, “What exactly are we trying to do here?”

Slot wasn’t hired to be Klopp

What I keep coming back to is simple: Arne Slot wasn’t brought in to be Klopp. That’s not a slight on either of them. It’s just reality. Klopp’s Liverpool became a full-on culture, a style, a way of carrying yourself in games. Replacing that is never going to be a case of copying and pasting.

And if we’re being honest with ourselves, it’s also unfair to demand a carbon copy while simultaneously wanting “new ideas”. You can’t have both. If the club chose a different type of coach, you have to allow the bumps that come with that.

Patience now, proper judgement later

I’ll hold my hands up: I’ve been there with the knee-jerk stuff too. After a heavy home defeat to PSV, I was straight into “Slot out” territory. It happens. You’re emotional, you’re annoyed, and you’re seeing the worst version of the team.

But stepping back, I’m more at the point of thinking patience is key and the real re-evaluation comes in the summer. For now, if the results are keeping us afloat even when the performances aren’t fully convincing, that matters. It’s been a turbulent year for a lot of reasons, and sometimes “ok” is exactly what you take while the foundations are still being laid.

So I’m trying to get behind them. Not blindly. Just properly. Because if we’re serious about moving forward, this is the bit where you either help it breathe, or you suffocate it before it’s had a chance.

Written by Ernest Millar: 2 January 2026