Jamie Carragher has said Arne Slot will not have “a leg to stand on” if his Liverpool side fail to qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Slot enjoyed a dream start to life at Anfield by leading Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season with the club.
The Reds finished 10 points above Arsenal last term. However, the Gunners now find themselves 14 points better off than Slot’s team after 23 rounds of Premier League fixtures this season.
Liverpool must focus on Champions League qualification
While leaders Arsenal look set to battle Manchester City and Aston Villa for title glory this season, Liverpool’s main focus must be ensuring they don’t miss out on a spot in Europe’s top club competition in 2025/26.
A top-four finish is guaranteed to be enough, but it is highly likely that England will get an extra Champions League spot, meaning the team that places fifth in this season’s Premier League will probably qualify too.
After losing 3-2 away at Bournemouth at the weekend, Liverpool currently sit sixth. Directly above them are world champions Chelsea and a resurgent Manchester United, who have beaten Arsenal and Man City in their first two matches following the re-appointment of Michael Carrick as caretaker manager.
Jamie Carragher names three things Arne Slot’s Liverpool “can’t cope with”
Speaking on Sky Sports on Monday night, Carragher suggested that serious questions would be asked about Slot’s future if he fails to guide Liverpool to a place in next season’s Champions League.
Club legend Carragher pointed to Liverpool’s huge summer in the transfer market and also highlighted three key areas in which Slot’s team are not good enough — set-pieces, dealing with counter-attacks and breaking down teams that sit deep.
“If you don’t qualify for the Champions League, having won the league the season before and spent as much as Liverpool, I don’t think you’ve got a leg to stand on,” Carragher began.
“The real worry I have for Liverpool in terms of qualifying for the Champions League is the three big things that stand out in the Premier League now are set-pieces, counter-attacking football and coming up against low-blocks. Liverpool can’t cope with any of them.
“What we’re seeing is a team in the Premier League that’s not suited to the Premier League. Once you start seeing what Manchester United and Chelsea have done in the last couple of weeks, you start seeing that Liverpool could actually finish outside the Champions League positions.
“I really fear for them. Once you start fearing Champions League qualification for next season, that’s when I think we’ve got a completely different proposition when we’re talking about the manager’s job.
“That, for me, is completely different. If we’re talking about not winning the league or challenging for the league, that is a collective responsibility, and Liverpool don’t win the league every year.
“Not making the Champions League from [being] champions, spending £450m and having the highest wage bill in the Premier League, which is normally the biggest determining factor over where you finish in the league, I think you’ve got serious questions to ask.”
Are Liverpool in transition under Arne Slot?
Carragher’s takedown of his former club came after Slot had claimed that his team were experiencing a period of transition following their summer signing spree.
“Everyone at the club, me, ownership, sporting directors – we know what it takes to make the next step in this transition phase,” Slot said following Saturday’s defeat at Bournemouth.
Gary Neville hit back at Slot over his transition comment. Speaking on his podcast, Neville declared: “I’m not listening to that. £450m spent in the summer on all those players was the season you were going to win back-to-back titles.”
Amid Liverpool’s poor form, there was some positive news for the club to celebrate recently. Last week, Liverpool were confirmed as the top Premier League club based on revenue in the 2024/25 season.
A total income of £702m placed the Anfield outfit fifth in the latest edition of the Deloitte Football Money League, behind only Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain.
