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Ahead of Liverpool’s game tonight against Sunderland, Arne Slot was asked whether Champions League qualification this season is necessary if he wishes to keep his job.
In response, the Liverpool manager reminded reporters that Jurgen Klopp finished fifth in the 2022/23 Premier League season, with the club playing Europa League football under the German’s watch the following year.
Arne Slot believes he deserves the same respect from Liverpool as Jurgen Klopp
Inexplicably, Arne Slot believes that he has earned the same amount of goodwill that Jurgen Klopp, who inherited a thoroughly mediocre Liverpool side then had the whole of Europe quivering against them inside two full seasons, generated during his time at the club.
Jurgen Klopp. The man who took Liverpool to back-to-back Champions League finals, back-to-back 97 and 99 point Premier League campaigns, then to an almost historic quadruple in 2021/22 that saw his side win a domestic double.
In contrast, Arne Slot inherited the final iteration of a Jurgen Klopp Liverpool side that had been in title contention during the 2023/24 season, and a version of Mohamed Salah that later produced the best non-Messi or Ronaldo domestic league campaign this century.
The reason why Liverpool persisted with Klopp is clear not just to fans of the club, but to all football fans - he picked up a struggling Liverpool and raised the club back onto its rightful perch, turning fans from ‘doubters to believers’ as he once said so poignantly.
If you were to poll a thousand Liverpool fans tomorrow and ask what hope they have for the remainder of the season, perhaps even next season if Slot is to stay, then their collective answer would surely be little to none.
The Dutchman has turned this fanbase from believers into doubters. Arne Slot has almost entirely destroyed the DNA that Klopp re-embedded into Liverpool across nearly a decade, and his self-comparison to the German is a pathetic attempt to etch his legacy alongside Klopp’s ahead of a surefire axing by the club this summer.
It’s also a petty reminder to the club’s fans that Jurgen Klopp failed at times too, a pitiful deflection attempt from a man who commandeered Liverpool during their worst run of form in over 70 years.
To Liverpool fans who have followed Arne Slot’s words lately, it’s hard to shake the feeling that they aren’t the words of a man who is slowly losing his mind. When Liverpool lifted the Premier League trophy last season, Slot proclaimed to a packed out Anfield crowd that this wasn’t Liverpool’s second title in 35 years, it was the second in five years.
But just last month, when Slot was questioned by TNT Sports regarding his side’s abysmal form in 2025/26 and restoring belief in the fans, he suddenly changed his tune. “[I’ve] won the league once where the club has won it twice in 30 years… I’m surprised to hear that”, said the Dutchman.
This time, Slot didn’t abandon context, he manipulated it. The very phrase that received such loud cheers from the Anfield faithful last season was abruptly edited to demand respect from them for his achievement.
Liverpool fans that slated and abused Mohamed Salah in mass last December for his interview would be wise to levy the same criticism at Arne Slot here, who raised his own achievements at the expense of the club's image despite having far less credit in the bank to do so than the Egyptian.
Unfortunately, the Dutchman’s words haven’t received the same attention from the Liverpool fanbase or the media as Salah’s did. Criticism of Slot has largely been limited to his team’s results, but the disrespect present in his words towards the club and Jurgen Klopp is arguably just as pressing as his side’s abysmal form.
As Liverpool fans travel to face Sunderland, a side unbeaten at home in the league during the 2025/26 season, the question shouldn't be whether their team will drop points, that almost feels like a given, but what excuse Arne Slot will use to defend himself or his team next.
After a 3-2 loss against Bournemouth last month in which Virgil Van Dijk committed two major errors leading to goals, the Liverpool boss bizarrely blamed the wind for his centre-back's mistakes shortly after claiming that "the only ones to blame are ourselves".
Arne Slot, allow me to edit your words the same way that you do your own. The only one to blame is yourself. For the good of the club and the good of your legacy at it, it's time to go.
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