I’m not here to pretend Arne Slot hasn’t earned praise. If you’re judging him on what he got out of the squad he inherited, then fair play, there was a point where it looked like Liverpool had found a new groove quickly. When things clicked, the side looked dominant, confident, and hard to live with. And I’ll always give managers and players their due when they deliver, because this game is hard enough without fans rewriting history every other week.

But what winds me up is the idea that he should also be applauded for trying to “fix” problems that, in my view, he created in the first place. That’s where I can’t follow. If you change the feel of the team, you own the consequences. If the football becomes cautious, that’s not bad luck, that’s a decision.

Credit where it’s due, without the rewriting

There’s a habit among all of us, not just Liverpool fans, where we pick a side and then everything gets filtered through it. Manager’s doing well? Every win is genius. Manager’s struggling? Every draw is sabotage. The truth is usually messier.

So yes, give Slot credit for getting results and for any period where the side looked ruthless. Give the players and staff credit too, because no manager “does it all by himself” in either direction. But don’t do the thing where good periods automatically excuse the bad ones, like it’s all one long story of progress.

When Liverpool stop trusting the ball, alarm bells ring

My bigger gripe is stylistic. Liverpool at our best are brave. We pass through pressure, we take risks in the right areas, we play with that edge where opponents feel like the game can swing against them at any second. When you start seeing a team look nervous in possession, hesitant, choosing the safe option over and over, it doesn’t just look ugly, it drains confidence across the pitch.

You can call it “control” if you want. Sometimes control is sensible. But there’s a fine line between managing moments and playing scared. Once you cross it, everything slows down: the tempo, the press, the crowd, the belief.

No medals for putting out the fire you lit

That’s why I struggle with the idea of handing out extra credit for restoring basics that never should’ve been lost. If Liverpool become hard to watch and then slightly less hard to watch, I’m not giving out applause for that recovery alone. Improvement is good, but it’s not a triumph if the drop-off was self-inflicted.

Fans can disagree on how much blame sits at Slot’s door, and that’s fine. But my take is simple: praise the highs, be honest about the lows, and don’t ask supporters to clap for a return to standards we already had.

Written by OliRed: 3 January 2026

Tags: opinion efl