Jamie Carragher believes Arn Slott’s position as Liverpool’s head coach is becoming increasingly precarious, but insists the blame for Liverpool’s dismal performance lies firmly with the players. Liverpool lost to PSV in the Champions League, their ninth loss out of 12 games, and suffered a crushing defeat with three goals in a row.
The pressure on Slott increased following the 3-0 humiliation at Nottingham Forest and the subsequent 4-1 humiliation against PSV at Anfield. Carragher sent an impassioned message after the match, calling on his Liverpool team to “step up” as modern legends such as Alisson Becker, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah are no longer performing at their previous levels.
“Liverpool are not a club to make redundancies,” Carragher clarified on CBS Sports.
“Liverpool are different from almost every club in European football where the manager is king. They are given time. Liverpool have never sacked a manager who has won the league. Never in their history have they resigned after a few years.
“When I spoke to Liverpool supporters at the weekend after losing at home to Nottingham Forest, I couldn’t believe people were talking about the manager’s job and that’s only going to increase now.”
“I’ve always been in the camp of following the manager. To be honest, I’m really angry at the players. But with any manager at any club, you get to a point where I always use the word ‘I can’t stand’. I can’t go on any longer. Personally I’m not there yet in terms of a manager, but I know a lot of supporters will be.”
“We knew the game was over long before the final whistle, so we had a lot of time to think about it. What you’re seeing now is the start of a great journey through time under Liverpool in 2018 under[Jurgen]Klopp, and then Slott comes in. Now, seven or eight years later, it started with Alisson, Van Dijk and Salah.”
“Alison hasn’t played much at the moment because he’s had a lot of injuries. But now you’re looking at Van Dijk, it’s not the same player. And Mo Salah looks like he’s lost a leg. I don’t like to criticize them, but I think some of the criticisms of them as players this season have been harsh.”
“When things aren’t going well, you always want a coach to step up. I’ve been critical of Mo Salah off the pitch. I wanted him to come out tonight and interview him and talk to the Liverpool supporters about what the players are going to do, what’s going on in the dressing room and give the supporters hope for improvement.”
“But I don’t like to criticize them on the pitch, because they are absolute legends in terms of what they’ve done so far, and especially with Salah, he’s just faltered. Van Dijk now can’t help other players. He needs help himself. And that just means he’s an ordinary centre-back, like I used to be. And maybe he’s not a superhuman now.”
“But they’ve been performing really well for the football club, so when you look at the other players, step up! Are you only playing well when they’re playing well, or when they’re carrying you? Their last season was substandard and everyone else enjoyed it and won the league. They’re all league champions, they’ve got that written on their CVs, which is great. But when they’re not there, where are the other players?”
“That’s why I get angry when I talk about the manager. But it’s inevitable and anything can happen. But in terms of the players and their current performance, that’s not acceptable for Liverpool Football Club.”
“And actually I think – and I thought about it a little bit last season – are some of them good enough players if Liverpool want to win the biggest trophies? I saw them last season against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup and away against PSG and they were terrible performances and those have been carried by some of the best players in the club’s history.
“This is probably a snapshot of Liverpool’s future when Mo Salah leaves, Virgil van Dijk leaves and Alisson leaves.”
