After another underwhelming Liverpool display, Arne Slot is back in the firing line.
Liverpool fans voiced their displeasure at Anfield during the draw with Chelsea, with boos heard at different stages of the afternoon. Ibrahima Konate was targeted in the first half for not playing forward and Slot was booed for taking Rio Ngumoha off.
It is more of the same dissatisfaction that has followed Liverpool for weeks. The performances have not been good enough, the mood has turned, and Slot is under real pressure from fans, but John Barnes does not think this result — or the remaining fixtures — should change his future.
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John Barnes believes Arne Slot should stay at Liverpool next season
FSG have so far remained behind Slot, and the club still appear to be planning for the future with him in charge.
The pressure is clearly growing from the outside, especially with supporters now making their feelings known inside Anfield, but Barnes does not believe the Chelsea draw should move the dial.
Asked whether the result changed anything around Slot’s future, Barnes made it clear that he still expects him to be in charge next season.
He told Premier League Productions: “I don’t think so, you want people to be happier between now and the end of the season. Had they lost, they would not have been as happy. But I don’t think this is necessarily going to have an impact on next season.
“I don’t think these next two games, they’re probably going to be in the Champions League, will necessarily determine his future. I think it is easy to say it’s either going to be there or he isn’t, And I believe that, as far as I’m concerned, he should be here next season, regardless of what happens in the next two games.”
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Barnes does not see the final games as some kind of decisive audition for Slot, even if the performances are doing little to quieten the noise.
Liverpool fans are starting to make their own feelings clear. The next two games may not change things in the eyes of the hierarchy, but they very well could with supporters.
That is not a good place for Slot to be heading into the summer.
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