On May 17th, the chief reporter of the "Daily Telegraph", named Sam Wallace, published an article saying that Liverpool's senior management was more inclined to keep Slott in office.
Snott emphasized again next Friday night that Liverpool is in the same situation as many teams that have declined sharply. As long as they are given a transfer window to make supplementary matters, they can return to the top ranks again. In the past year and a half, Manchester City and Manchester United have achieved a rebound in their team lineups by introducing new players. However, Liverpool are now facing a difficult situation. The time limit given by their die-hard fans to Slott is running out. Can he seize this only remaining opportunity to achieve the goal of reversing the counterattack?
This season, outside Anfield, fans' support for Slott has dropped rapidly. This situation is quite rare in the history of the Liverpool team, and it will directly affect whether the coach can continue to coach. Fans who paid for tickets to watch the game collectively asked the head coach to resign. In the current public opinion environment, it may not be easy for any coach to consolidate his position, but Liverpool's management is determined to challenge the usual logic of football.
Fenway Sports Group has always been good at making major strategic judgments, accurately controlling the team's financial investment, finalizing the head coach and team building plan, and efficiently promoting lineup updates. These arrangements have all achieved results. But there are also many factors that are difficult to control. Whether fans are willing to recognize the team's long-term plan, and more importantly, whether everyone trusts Slott to implement this plan. These fan sentiments, which are difficult to quantify with data, become unstoppable once they form a trend and cannot be reflected in financial statements, but they are actually everywhere.
In the past fifteen years, no Premier League club has been able to reverse the team's original destiny with the help of data analysis like Liverpool, relying on such a system to implement pragmatic player buying and selling behaviors in order to fully activate the team's internal funds. As early as a full decade ago, Liverpool had already taken the lead in laying out such an operating model and seized the opportunity early. When other wealthy clubs began to follow and imitate, Liverpool had already widened the gap between them.
It is precisely because of this that Fenway's core management such as Mike Gordon and Michael Edwards have always believed that their judgments have not been wrong, and they are accustomed to winning through layout. It is indeed worthy of recognition to insist on the idea of building a team despite the public opposition. However, the possible backlash caused by public opinion will usually wipe out everything. Once Anfield fans completely abandon Sloter, that passive situation will eventually evolve into a realistic situation that cannot be undone.
At the moment, Slott has lost the support of most Liverpool fans, but Fenway still decided to keep him, trying to see if the coach can win back the favor of the fans again. After this week's defeat to Aston Villa, more and more people believe that the original hiring of Slott caused far less controversy than the current decision to insist on letting him coach for a third season – you know, he is one of only two coaches to lead Liverpool to the Premier League title in the 21st century. This situation has never appeared before in the development history of Liverpool, a giant.
In addition, the atmosphere in Liverpool's dressing room is depressing, and it is no secret that the players are dissatisfied. Next week, Salah, who is about to play his last game at Anfield, once publicly criticized and pointed out that the overall level of the team was declining. The finger was pointed directly at Slott. The day for Salah to leave the team is coming soon. Based on some signs, the outside world speculates that he will most likely express his dissatisfaction directly after the final game. Looking at Slott on the other hand, he currently does not have enough voice to respond to Salah. Only after the Egyptian star officially leaves the team in accordance with the process can he express his thoughts freely without any scruples.
Xabi Alonso, who has been confirmed to coach Chelsea, the most popular candidate to replace Slott, has no chance with Liverpool. As early as after Klopp left office, Fenway had intended to invite Alonso, but the latter rejected the Liverpool offer and waited for a year to wait for the Real Madrid coaching position to become vacant. This matter has profoundly affected Fenway's decision-making thinking. It is reported that Liverpool has no plans to replace Slott this summer.
Taking a comprehensive look at all parts of the football world, among the wealthy teams that have achieved excellent results in recent years, it is particularly rare that the differences between management and fan groups have reached such a large degree. Looking at the entire history of football, only the 1988-1989 season when Ferguson coached Manchester United can be compared with it: Manchester United fell straight from second place in the league the previous year to 11th place in that season; that sluggish situation continued to extend to the next year, and fans even raised banners and demanded that Ferguson be fired. However, the momentum formed by Manchester United fans against Ferguson back then was far less consistent than the current high level of consensus among Liverpool fans against Slott. In such a desperate situation that class was about to end, Ferguson, who had coached Manchester United for three years, gritted his teeth and persisted, and finally succeeded in winning the FA Cup, thereby stabilizing his position as coach. Slott holds the honor of the Premier League championship in his hands, and the team is currently ranked fifth in the league. Its situation is far from the embarrassing situation it was back then. However, the environment in football in today's era has been greatly different. Even as a championship coach, his coaching position has become extremely dangerous, and he is likely to be replaced at any time.
Although the fans' public opinion is in a state of excitement, it has not yet reached the level where all members have completely boycotted it. Liverpool has not reached that point yet. For the team and Slaughter, the sooner this season ends, the better. There are indeed objective reasons for the difficulties the team is facing this season: Jota passed away last summer, and many players such as Isaac, Alisson, Bradley, and Leoni were injured consecutively and missed the game. Even though Liverpool has dropped from the league champion position and is now 20 points away from the top spot, the team still firmly controls the initiative to qualify for the Champions League. It's just that the team's morale and the fans' confidence are already quite fragile, and it's obviously extremely difficult to build them up again.
If Slott is finally able to successfully stay on and lead the team back to its peak, this will become a landmark event in English football. That is, the team management insisted on its own decision-making after withstanding the pressure exerted by the fans, and finally proved that its choice was correct. However, this is ultimately a competition that unfolds at the same time. Once the Liverpool fans exert overall pressure, it will be difficult for Slott to gain a foothold in the team. After all, the fans have always held a powerful force in the hands of the coach's destiny.