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It’s a reality no one at Liverpool will want to face up to, but Arne Slot cannot escape the growing questions over his position as head coach.
Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest sees the Reds’ awful run of form continue. They’ve now lost six of their last seven games in the Premier League, eight of the last 11 across all competitions, and the title defense already looks to be over after just 12 league outings.
It’s not just the fact that Liverpool is losing so many games that is proving to be so concerning at the moment. The performance against Forest was perhaps the most concerning this season, with Slot still unable to get a tune out of his players after the summer’s huge spending spree.
The Liverpool boss still has a lot of credit in the bank following last season’s success, and the club’s chairman Tom Werner only gave him his backing a few days ago, so it wouldn’t seem as though Slot faces being fired at the moment. FSG though has shown it can be ruthless.
The club’s owners haven’t had to make a decision on firing a manager/head coach for a decade now, with Brendan Rodgers having been the last man to be dismissed all the way back in 2015.
Like Slot, Rodgers had been backed in the transfer market - albeit to the much lesser tune of £80 million ($105M) - heading into the 2015/16 season, but after a 1-1 draw with Everton left the Reds sitting 10th a couple of months into the campaign, patience had run out.
According to the Liverpool Echo, Rodgers was called just an hour after the game by FSG president Mike Gordon, who delivered the message. The firing caught some by surprise - who can forget Thierry Henry putting his hand on a bewildered Jamie Carragher’s knee - but Liverpool’s owners had already been preparing for that eventuality.
FSG had actually spent the preceding two weeks sounding out a would-be successor, and just days before Rodgers was dismissed, Jurgen Klopp was meeting Liverpool’s chiefs.
"The first meeting was in New York, that’s true," Klopp said of his first contact with Liverpool and FSG.
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"But the first phone call with Mike was before that, three days before I don’t know. It was a nice day, I remember that. I think I was in bed still. I had nothing to do. I had time off.
"I knew that Mike, or someone, from FSG was going to call. I didn’t know Mike at that point. But we had one hour on the phone.
"I obviously convinced him in a way that he wanted to meet in New York to bring the deal over the line. pretty much that’s how it started."
Both Liverpool and Klopp managed to keep the meeting secret - the latter insisted at the time he had traveled to the US to watch a basketball game - and after talks that lasted six hours, the wheels were in motion for the German to take over from Rodgers.
There have been no indications that any similar secret meetings with prospective replacements have been taking place behind Slot’s back, although FSG have shown they’re more than capable of keeping these things under wraps.
With the club’s chairman Werner in attendance to watch the defeat to Forest on Saturday, there will be no escaping any scrutiny from Liverpool’s hierarchy for Slot. The Reds’ boss has to find a way to turn things around, or else FSG could be forced into making just their second firing in a decade.
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