Liverpool may end up getting rid of Slot purely because they cannot think of what else to do

The mood at Liverpool has gone from skittish to mutinous. Jamie Carragher has felt things and, like Walter Cronkite during the Vietnam war, if you’ve lost Carragher then you’ve lost Middle Liverpool.

EASY FIX: In a way the modern big-club coach takes the job with the full awareness that they are basically a narrative device, a reset button to press when things get sticky. Pic: Peter Byrne/PA Wire.

It was the coffee bar at the training ground, installed by the Fenway Sports Group’s chief executive, Michael Edwards, after he got the idea from visiting Roma. It was Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, added to the post-match playlist by Alisson and which could be heard booming out of the Liverpool dressing room after victories. It was the video analysis. It was the data. It was the pre-season fitness tests. It was the close collaboration between the football and sports science departments. It was everything that changed from the Jürgen Klopp era. It was everything that stayed the same from the Jürgen Klopp era.

Victory brings a dazzling clarity. Particularly a victory as resounding as Liverpool’s unexpected 10-point romp to the Premier League title last season. It turns the cogs, powers the houses, confers a sunlit aura of genius on everyone involved. So with a certain uncharitable hindsight, it is instructive to go back to late April 2025 and read about how everyone thought Liverpool had done it. And why everyone – wrongly – thought they were going to do it again.