Arne Slot is coming under mounting pressure as Liverpool’s dreadful run of results continues — and with FSG having shown its ruthless streak in the past, the situation is becoming increasingly tense for the Reds’ head coach.
No one at the club wants to confront it, but Slot can no longer avoid the growing scrutiny surrounding his position.
Liverpool’s 3–0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday added to an already worrying slide. The team has now dropped six of its last seven Premier League matches and eight of its previous eleven in all competitions. Just 12 league fixtures into the campaign, their title defence is already in serious doubt.
Despite this, Slot still retains significant goodwill following last season’s achievements, and club chairman Tom Werner publicly backed him only days ago. For now, there is no indication that Liverpool are preparing to sack him — but FSG has proven before that it is capable of acting decisively.
It has been ten years since Liverpool’s ownership last dismissed a manager, with Brendan Rodgers the most recent casualty back in 2015.
Rodgers, much like Slot, was supported in the transfer market — although with a far smaller budget of around £80 million ($105m). However, after a 1–1 draw against Everton left Liverpool sitting 10th early in the 2015/16 season, FSG’s patience reached its limit.
According to the Liverpool Echo, FSG president Mike Gordon phoned Rodgers just an hour after full time to confirm he had been relieved of his duties. The decision caught many off guard — including the now-famous moment when Thierry Henry placed a sympathetic hand on a stunned Jamie Carragher’s knee on live television — but the club’s owners had already been quietly preparing for weeks.
In fact, FSG had spent the previous fortnight discreetly exploring replacements, and only days before Rodgers was officially dismissed, Jurgen Klopp held a secret meeting with Liverpool’s leadership team.
“The first meeting was in New York — that’s correct,” Klopp later said about his initial discussions with Liverpool and FSG.
FSG ultimately appointed Klopp as Rodgers’ successor, ending that turbulent period.
The question now lingering over Anfield is whether history could repeat itself if Slot cannot find a way to halt Liverpool’s alarming decline.
