Amid his most difficult Anfield spell, Arne Slot has somehow found himself in a position from which he can emerge stronger and more secure than ever.
Amid his most difficult Anfield spell, Arne Slot has somehow found himself in a position from which he can emerge stronger and more secure than ever.
If Mohamed Salah’s intention with his grumble in the huddle at Elland Road was to weaken Slot, he must now concede that his misguided actions have had the opposite effect.
The chief reason for Salah’s miscalculation is his failure to fully understand the psychology of the club’s hardcore fanbase.
In a choice between a title-winning Anfield manager and a multi-title-winning footballer, the coach wins every time.
The relationship between a successful Liverpool boss and the Kop is, through my eyes at least, unique. The fans have a banner that displays the faces of all the most revered managers in the club’s history. Slot’s face was added this year.
What other fanbase would back a manager who has only been at the club 18 months over a superstar who has delivered every honour in the game for eight years? It is a valid argument that Liverpool are the current Premier League champions because of Salah more than Slot. The Egyptian’s goals propelled the team to glory last May.
The Kop will never see it in such individual terms.
Bill Shankly left such an imprint that they will mobilise and rally to protect their head coach from any attacks they perceive unfair, whether they be internal or external. Misgivings about form and results are cast aside, temporarily at least, to back the manager.
Under the circumstances, Dominik Szoboszlai’s penalty winner against Inter Milan was the most important of this season, and may come to be regarded as a turning point in Slot’s reign. There is still a lot of work to do, but if he gets the season back on track, that is the result and week he will look back upon as where his luck changed.
It was striking how Slot’s name was chanted from early on in the game at San Siro. The travelling fans backed him when the score was 0-0. They were sending a message that their views on how the team and the club is run matters more than the gripes of one footballer, no matter how brilliant that player has been.
That stood out to me as much as the professional performance.
There will be those reading this column, or more specifically commenting on it online, who will vehemently argue against my submission that the die-hard supporters are overwhelmingly behind Slot on this issue.
Fans who don’t go to games are disconnected from the mood of the club
Like many clubs’ fanbases, Liverpool’s is divided between those who dedicate their life to supporting the team – the familiar faces you see and hear even as players at home and away – and those who spend their time on social media and are disconnected from the mood in and around the city and the stadium itself.
After I spoke on the Salah situation on Monday Night Football, I was alerted to those who disagreed with my take. I couldn’t care less, because I intuitively know I am on the same page as those supporters who were at San Siro on Tuesday night. I am in touch with enough of them to be able to measure if my mood reflects theirs. The day I no longer believe that to be true is the day I stop commenting on Liverpool.
There is a newer generation of supporters who follow players more than a club. If Salah had left two years ago or last summer, they would have taken their allegiance with him. I would go so far as to say that there are some who would have happily seen Liverpool lose to increase the prospects of Salah staying and Slot leaving.
This issue was never going to be just about Slot versus Salah, or even Salah versus Liverpool’s executives. To those who understand Liverpool, it is about their perception of what the club stands for and how those representing it should behave.
They see the manager as the embodiment of their values. Once that connection is established – and Slot secured his in his first year – the bond is reinforced when someone threatens it.
For all the poor recent performances, questionable tactics and contentious substitutions, for those supporters who are the true lifeblood of the club, Slot always had an ace up his sleeve; he is a Premier League-winning manager.
Every successful Liverpool coach since Shankly has reaped the long-term reward of that.
Shankly’s true legacy is extra time for successors who replicate his triumphs. There has been a deep sense of discomfort from supporters whenever the prospect of Slot losing his job has been raised. You do not get this to the same extent at other football clubs, certainly not in England, where title-winning managers have been sacked or found themselves under immense pressure to leave regardless of what they achieved.
As I wrote in this column two weeks ago, the relationship between supporters and manager can never be unconditional. It was new ground for a title-winning Liverpool manager to be so under the pump, however.
Slot went into the latest three Premier League games in a precarious position because of Liverpool’s worst run since the 1950s, and growing murmurs about whether he could find solutions. I stand by the view that had those games gone badly, there are those at the top of the club who would have been considering whether he could lead the team out of its rut.
My mistake was to suggest he needed a minimum of seven points from nine. It was more important for Slot to show he can take big decisions to stop the bleeding. Liverpool are now unbeaten in their last four, with two wins. Slot made changes to his line-up to make the games less open and help his defenders.
Obviously, the headline-grabbing decision was dropping Salah. When he did so, no one thoroughly analysing performances this season felt that was the wrong call. Slot had to act, and taking such a drastic and brave decision could be interpreted that even he knew time was running out.
What no one foresaw was the impact of the Salah interview and what a difference that has made. Once Salah spoke out, just like the supporters, Liverpool’s executives were never going to back the player over the manager.
There might be no way back for Salah now he is heading to the Africa Cup of Nations, but I genuinely hope there is. Even though I have been furious about what he said last weekend, it would be an absolute travesty if that interview is remembered as his last meaningful act for Liverpool. He has done too much for the club for that to be so. He owes it to himself to make sure he is afforded a farewell fit for a legend – whenever that might be. If that means he has to apologise, so be it.
As things stand, it would be no surprise if Liverpool sold Salah to fund another spree in January because the lack of resources on the substitutes bench in midweek was extraordinary given how much was spent last summer. That was a key takeaway from another dramatic Anfield week.
Slot’s squad is weaker than it should be.
The past two weeks have at least demonstrated that the same cannot be said of the manager.
Category: General Sports
