Slot Needs Alignment, Not Another Shake-Up

For me, the starting point is simple: Arne Slot is probably here until the end of the season, whatever the noise. You can talk about reviews and pressure and “under scrutiny”, but Liverpool don’t tend to spin the wheel every time the mood shifts. And if you do pull that lever, you’d want to be absolutely sure what you’re replacing him with.

The frustrating bit is it doesn’t always feel like he’s adapting much. Then again, the shape has tightened up defensively, and that’s not nothing. It suggests he’s seen what happens when we go too open and try to win games like it’s a basketball match. Earlier in the season, when we were expansive and a bit gung-ho, we got picked apart in transitions. You can see why a coach would look at that and decide: right, first we stop conceding cheap ones.

Pragmatism might be a choice, not a flaw

There’s a version of this where Slot is being cautious because he doesn’t trust the personnel to play on the edge every week. If the squad isn’t quite as strong as some make out, then “brave football” becomes “naive football” pretty quickly. It’s not always about philosophy; sometimes it’s about what your group can actually carry without falling apart.

That’s where I end up with a bit of sympathy. Not blind loyalty, not ignoring the shortcomings, but an awareness that the coach can only squeeze so much out of a group if the build of the squad and the game model aren’t properly aligned.

Who’s really building the team?

If Hughes and Edwards are picking the signings, they’re not just picking “options”. They’re effectively picking the team. Recruitment decides the ceiling and the style. It decides whether you can dominate games with the ball, whether you can press like mad for 90 minutes, and whether you’ve got enough depth to survive a rough patch.

And when recruitment is steering the ship, where does that leave the coach? You only have to look around the league to see how quickly a manager becomes the public face of decisions that may not have been theirs in the first place.

Direction matters more than the next name

It’s also why I’m sceptical about the “just replace him” argument. Replace him with who, exactly, and to do what? If the back room aren’t in sync on direction and tactical vision, then swapping the manager is just changing the accent on the same confusion.

We all want better. We want a side that looks like Liverpool, competes with the best, and actually has a plan that lasts longer than a bad month. But if the club isn’t aligned from recruitment to coaching to the way we want to play, you end up in limbo. And limbo is where trophy challenges go to die.

Written by Hugo Spritz: 8 January 2026