Arne Slot has run out of ideas at Liverpool and there is only one decision to make as sack threat looms

Liverpool have been drifting for much of the season. Jamie Carragher noticed the warning signs after only a few games of the season, even when his old team were winning.

There was a lack of control, a lack of fluency, the forward line was shorn of pace and urgency, the midfield was porous, and the defence had developed an unwanted habit of gifting chances to opposition teams. The sort of mix that usually doesn’t lead to effective performances or positive results. The worrying trend is that nothing has changed despite Arne Slot appearing to have the full backing of the Anfield hierarchy.

Arne Slot on borrowed time at Liverpool

The only changes that Slot has made have been to swap Florian Wirtz from the no.10 role to the left wing or to drop Mohamed Salah. Other than this, there has been little to suggest that the Dutchman has a long-term plan of how to get his side playing on the front foot and a style that has even a passing resemblance to the swash-buckling football of Jurgen Klopp. The players don’t look happy, and the fans certainly aren’t with what they are seeing, especially when the record transfer spend of last summer is factored into the equation.

Slot’s mindset also gives an insight into why he will continue to struggle at Liverpool. There is now a nervousness about Liverpool going into the closing stages of games, a desperation born out of knowing that there is every chance that a goal will be conceded. It is almost an indication of the lack of trust between the players and the manager and between the players themselves, that they can get over the line. The most worrying aspect is that Slot has almost given up. Everything is somebody else or something else’s fault. There has been no structural change to the shape or formation and has only turned to Rio Ngumoha when he had no other choice.

Arne Slot runs out of ideas

Asked about how much he can change Liverpool’s apprach to games in the final weeks and months of the season, he gave a bizarre response, via the club’s website: “I think approaching a game has not so much to do with the final minutes of the game. I think what you are trying as a manager or as a team is to outperform the other team in terms of chance creation. You always try to create more chances than the other team, because usually that leads to winning more than you lose.

“So that means attacking-wise, generate as much chances as you can. And defensively, don't give away as much. And I think throughout almost the whole season we've been on the positive side of that in terms of chance creation because we've not been a lot of times on the positive side of scoring goals or conceding goals.”

In his own words, Slot is admitting that he thinks everything is fine. That there is nothing he can do to improve results or performances. If this isn’t a big enough red flag for Richard Hughes to make the sort of change that has been inevitable for most of the season, what is?