‘My worry is…’ – Jamie Carragher fears Liverpool may be sleepwalking into Man United precedent
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Jamie Carragher has voiced his concerns that, by sticking with Arne Slot, Liverpool could find themselves in a similar situation to where Manchester United were a couple of years ago.The Reds’ head coach has seen his reputation plummet over the last 12 months, with David Bentley delivering the damning (but not wholly inaccurate) verdict that the fan base feel ‘disconnected‘ from the 47-year-old.DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL EMPIRE OF THE KOP APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAYAs reiterated by David Ornstein in the past 24 hours, FSG ‘fully intend’ to keep faith in the Dutchman despite the mutinous feeling at Anfield on Saturday, although Carragher has now drawn worrying parallels between Slot and the fortunes of his compatriot Erik ten Hag at Old Trafford.Carragher draws Slot/Ten Hag comparisonThe former LFC defender said on Sky Sports‘ Monday Night Football: “My worry with Liverpool and Arne Slot is, are we gonna be in a situation a bit like Ten Hag where he had a great first season?“Slot won the league, that’s a completely different level, but the second season was really poor, and you keep the manager on the back of what he did in the first season and it carries on poorly.
Then you get to October/November and you think you’ve got to change the manager.”Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustThe parallels between Slot and Ten Hag are eerieTen Hag made a strong early impression at Man United, finishing third in the Premier League and winning the Carabao Cup in his first season (2022/23), but the Red Devils dropped to eighth in the following campaign, which was partly rescued by a fortuitous FA Cup triumph.However, the former Ajax boss was gone by the end of October 2024 with the Old Trafford outfit languishing in 14th (they’d ultimately finish one place lower) and his reputation massively diminished from 18 months previously.As Carragher says, there are echoes of that reign with Slot at Liverpool.
He came in and won the Premier League at the first attempt, but the sophomore season has been a dreary slog which has seen the Reds fighting just to finish inside the top five (and without a trophy as tangible consolation).The worry for LFC fans is that there’s little to suggest the Dutchman will revive our fortunes in 2026/27 if he’s left in charge, and that we could end up declining even further next term, like Man United did in the final stages of Ten Hag’s time at the club.The last time Liverpool changed their manager in October, it went rather well – they hired a fella named Jurgen Klopp – but it’s hard to imagine there being another knight in similarly shining armour this time around if FSG’s seemingly blind faith in Slot evaporates by the autumn.There are lessons to be learned from what happened at Old Trafford a couple of years ago, but will the Anfield hierarchy heed them?