Liverpool boss Arne Slot: Jamie Carragher believes Dutchman has a week to save his job amid alarming slump

Arne Slot has a week to save his job at Liverpool, according to Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.

Liverpool are in their worst run of form for 71 years after Wednesday’s harrowing 4-1 defeat to PSV in the Champions League at Anfield handed Slot’s side a ninth loss in 12 games.

The Premier League champions, who sit 12th in the table after 12 matches, face a trip to West Ham on Sunday – live on Sky Sports – before games against promoted sides Leeds and Sunderland.

Former Liverpool defender Carragher, writing in his column for The Telegraph, warned “anything fewer than seven points will make an already unacceptable situation untenable”.

“Arne Slot has a week to save his job,” wrote Carragher in a damning assessment of his former club.

“No matter how much goodwill the manager has, Liverpool Football Club cannot sustain the drop in standards witnessed over the past three months.

“No one knows better than me how much that reality will be hurting everyone connected with my old club. Liverpool do not willingly sack coaches, especially those that bring great success.

“After Slot won the Premier League in his first season, he seemed destined for a long stay on Merseyside too. Now, just six months later, he is hanging on.”

Carragher accused Slot of taking his title winners “in a direction which is not in Liverpool’s winning tradition” with his tactical tweaks this season.

The former Reds defender cited the great Liverpool teams being built on strong defences, seeking to dispel the “myth” he says has developed that the Reds are “supposed to be an all-out attacking team” without “fear of the consequences of being gung-ho”.

“It felt wrong on day one of the season, and it has led to a mess right now,” said Carragher of Slot’s tactical changes, which have led to Liverpool losing by three-plus goals in three consecutive games for the first time since December 1953.

Carragher was incredulous that Liverpool spent around £440m in the summer to create an “unbalanced squad” and believes signing both Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike for big fees was a mistake.

“It is like betting on two horses in the same race,” he added. “You do not buy a striker for £80m and then two weeks later another for £125m, because if they are competing for the same position, only one can win. It cannot work.

“That error was compounded by the failure to pay whatever it took to sign Marc Guehi. For the sake of another £10m, Liverpool may lose over £100m because they will not be in next season’s Champions League unless they sign at least one centre-back in January.

“If Slot is still in charge by then, he will have started some kind of recovery.

“With respect to the upcoming opponents, he could not have picked a better sequence of games to win back trust and save himself. But if it gets any worse and the manager cannot find the answers, the club will have no choice but to find someone else who can.”

Carra: Liverpool seeing glimpse of future without key trio

In the immediate aftermath of the PSV defeat, Carragher said Slot’s position is not untenable yet but warned Liverpool are potentially seeing a glimpse of their future without Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk and Alisson.

“Liverpool’s not a sacking club,” Carragher said as a pundit on CBS Sports.

“Liverpool are different from almost every club in European football, where the manager is the king, the managers get time. Liverpool have never sacked a manager who’s won the league. Never, in history. After a few years they’ve gone, they’ve resigned.

“I couldn’t believe at the weekend that people were talking about the manager’s job when I spoke to Liverpool supporters after losing at home to Nottingham Forest. It’s only going to amplify now.

“I’ve always been in the camp of you stick with the manager, because I’m angry with the players, I’m really angry with the players. But it does get to a stage with any manager at any club where I always use this word, untenable, where it almost feels like it can’t go on any longer.

“I’m not quite there yet personally, in terms of the manager, but I know a lot of supporters will be.”

Liverpool’s ageing spine has been exposed this season as Van Dijk conceded a penalty for handball against PSV while Salah once again failed to score or assist, with goalkeeper Alisson absent.

Carragher reckons the other players in the squad haven’t stepped up.

“This is maybe a snapshot of the future of Liverpool when Mo Salah moves on, Virgil van Dijk moves on, and Alisson moves on,” he said.

“Liverpool in 2018, under Klopp, starts this journey of being a great team and then seven years later Slot comes in.

“The catalyst for Liverpool at the very start of that run was Alisson, Van Dijk and Salah. Alisson’s injured a lot now, so he doesn’t play so much. But you’re watching Van Dijk now, not the same player, and Salah looks like his legs have gone.

“I don’t like criticising them, and I think some of the criticism of them this season as players has been harsh. You’re always looking for your leaders in your team to step up when things are not going well.

“Now I’ve been critical of Salah off the pitch. I want him to come out and do an interview tonight and speak to the Liverpool supporters about what the players are going to do, what’s going on in the dressing room, giving the supporters hope that things are going to improve. I don’t like criticising them on the pitch, because they’re absolutely legendary what they’ve done, and the legs have just gone, especially with Salah.

“Van Dijk now can’t help other players. He needs help himself, and that just means that he’s a normal centre-back, like I was at one stage, so maybe he’s not superhuman right now. But they’ve been that good for the football club.

“I look at some of the others. Step up. Can you only play well when they play well, or they carry you? Their seasons last season were off the scale, and everybody else enjoyed that win in the league, and they’re all league champions.

“They got it on the CV, and great, but when they’re not there, where are they? Where are the others? Where are the other players? So that’s why I get angry about talking about the manager, but it’s inevitable and something could happen.

“But in terms of the players and the way they’re performing now, that is not acceptable for Liverpool Football Club.

“I thought this a little bit last season, are some of them good enough for Liverpool to win the biggest trophies? We saw them at Newcastle in the Carabao Cup. We saw them against PSG away from home last season. Woeful performance and they’ve been carried by some of the greatest players the club have ever had.”