Slot had to go - now Liverpool must secure Iraola ASAP

Iraola Slot Liverpool GFX

Saturday afternoon's news that Liverpool had sacked Arne Slot unquestionably came as a shock - not because it was the wrong decision, but because very few people actually thought that they'd do it. After being forced to sit through one of the worst title defences in Premier League history, Reds fans had lost as much faith in the club as they had the coach.

In fairness, there were rumours in the run-up to Liverpool's final game of a shambolic season that Slot was on his way out of Anfield, but they were quickly rubbished by journalists with close ties to the club.

After the dismal draw with Brentford that saw the Reds scrape into the Champions League, Slot also sounded like a man that expected to be in charge of Liverpool next season, as he spoke optimistically about the potential transformative effect of a transfer window.

As it transpired, the Liverpool-loyal media were simply pushing the party line, which was that Slot deserved more time to turn things around. However, the sheer scale of the fans' frustration, coupled with the findings of an in-house season review, left Liverpool with absolutely no option but to sack the manager who won the title in his first year in charge.

FBL-ENG-PR-ASTON VILLA-LIVERPOOL

No answers

In the coming hours, days and weeks, plenty of pundits will doubtless argue that Slot has been hard done by; that the enormity of his 2024-25 achievement has been downplayed. However, the real issue is not whether he should have been fired - but whether Liverpool should have acted sooner.

One could understand why Richard Hughes & Co. felt compelled to stand by their manager. But it's been clear since November that Slot had absolutely no idea how to arrest Liverpool's dramatic descent into mediocrity.

Amid the club's worst run of results in 71 years, he repeatedly outlined his team's problems - but without ever coming up with any lasting solutions. Liverpool were still leaking goals from set-pieces and being torn to shreds in transition towards the tail end of the season. There had been no discernible improvement in their performances whatsoever.

Aston Villa v Liverpool - Premier League

Falling standards

It also became painfully obvious in the final few months of a catastrophic campaign that it the dressing room was in a very bad place. Mohamed Salah wasn't the only disgruntled member of the squad.

Local lad Curtis Jones barely celebrated what is likely to be his final goal for Liverpool, against Brentford, while captain Virgil van Dijk cut a forlorn figure as he sat alone on the Anfield turf after the game, visibly bewildered by just how rapidly the Reds have unravelled since winning the league last year.

As always, it must be acknowledged that we may never know just how badly the players were affected by the death of their beloved team-mate Diogo Jota last summer - an unfathomable loss that Slot handled and always spoke about with great dignity. However, as Alexis Mac Allister said, Jota's passing could not be used as excuse or explanation for Liverpool's struggles during the season.

Manchester United v Liverpool - Premier League

Soft touch

Slot's side simply didn't appear capable of coping with the suddenly increased physicality of the Premier League. As they threw away a plethora of points and suffered a seemingly endless succession of injuries, Liverpool looked mentally and physically weak.

They became a soft touch, "an easy team to play against", as former Manchester United captain Roy Keane put it, the side that everyone wanted to play when they were in dire need of a victory.

And the terrible thing was that Slot proved utterly incapable of doing anything about it, making his dismissal unfortunately essential.

Had he been allowed to continue, there's a very real chance that Liverpool would have ended up in Erik ten Hag territory and written off a second successive season - after foolishly failing to salvage the current campaign by getting rid of Slot in January and replacing him with Xabi Alonso when they had the chance.

Arne Slot

Emotion over evidence

When Liverpool lost to Bournemouth on January 24, after four consecutive Premier League draws, Alonso was already available, having been stupidly sacked by Real Madrid 12 days previously.

At the time, it was easy for journalists reliant on the club for access to dutifully dismiss calls for the Reds to fire Slot to hire Alonso as a typically knee-jerk reaction from 'E-Reds', a derogatory term for the more impatient element of the club's online fanbase.

It was repeatedly pointed out that Liverpool weren't in the habit of sacking managers - and especially not those that had won a championship the season before. Slot apparently still had plenty of credit in the bank, and the argument was that the fans should have felt indebted to the manager for giving them one of the best days of their lives.

However, emotion never should have been allowed to dismiss evidence. Whether they were sitting on the Kop or the couch, supporters could see with their own eyes that Liverpool were lost because Slot had been found out. He should have been either helped out in the winter window or dismissed there and then - but the club did nothing, and a season that could have been saved was allowed to drift towards this inevitable and rather sad conclusion.

Liverpool v Chelsea - Premier League

Out of patience

Liverpool may have achieved the 'bare minimum' requirement for this season by qualifying for the Champions League, but they only did so via the extra place assigned to the Premier League midway through the campaign. It was also made painfully clear during the penultimate home game that Slot had lost the fans.

Midway through the second half of a dreadful draw with crisis club Chelsea, the coach was booed for taking off Rio Ngumoha. Slot explained afterwards that the teenager was complaining of cramps, but the mere fact that the fans felt compelled to not just question the decision but openly berate it underlined that they no longer trust the Dutchman's judgement. As far as they were concerned, it was entirely feasible that he would take off his most dangerous attacker rather than the consistently inconsistent Cody Gakpo.

So, when Salah effectively undermined what little credibility Slot had left in the eyes of the fans by taking an undignified but most opportune time to throw his manager under the bus before the Brentford game by lamenting Liverpool ditching 'heavy metal football' for the tactical equivalent of Coldplay, it was clear that the 47-year-old's days were numbered.

Liverpool FC v Bayer 04 Leverkusen - UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD4

Missed opportunity

The question now, of course, is what happens next? Had Liverpool not spent more than six months in denial, they could have changed the entire atmosphere around Anfield by bringing in Alonso - who is not only a fan favourite but also one of the most exciting young tacticians in the game today.

They had ample opportunity to appoint a coach who would have unquestionably got the best out of his former Bayern Leverkusen charges Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, but instead inexplicably waited until the end of the season before making their managerial move. There's, thus, a very real risk that they'll be brutally punished for their procrastination.

Liverpool v Bournemouth - Premier League

The saviour?

All is not lost, though. Despite being approached by AC Milan earlier this week, Andoni Iraola is still available - and that's reportedly because the Spaniard got wind of the potential vacancy at Anfield.

Iraola being linked with Liverpool is, of course, unsurprising, given he was brought to Bournemouth by Hughes - and went on to do an incredible job at the Vitality Stadium that culminated in the club qualifying for Europe for the first time ever by finishing sixth in this season's Premier League - despite losing almost his entire defence last summer.

Iraola is obviously not Alonso. He doesn't have anything like the same connection with Liverpool or its fans. However, he is an outstanding, Premier League-proven coach, one renowned for getting the most out of the resources at his disposal - while simultaneously managing to get his team playing attractive, attacking football.

In that sense, Iraola would be welcomed with open arms by fanbase who just want to enjoy watching their team again; to have something to get excited about after one dour and demoralising display after another under Slot.

Liverpool supporters were left dangerously disillusioned by puzzling inactivity and dreadful decision-making on and off the field last season. The owners erred badly by waiting so long to sack Slot. It's now imperative that they bring in Iraola as quickly as possible to at least go some way towards mending the strained - if not broken - relationship between those that support the club and those that run it.