Arne Slot heads into the most dangerous fortnight of his Liverpool tenure with a squad missing its first-choice goalkeeper, a captain playing out his final weeks in a red shirt, and the shadow of Saturday’s 4-0 collapse at Manchester City still hanging over Anfield.
The Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain arrives at Parc des Princes on Wednesday evening — and the French media has already delivered a verdict on Liverpool’s chances that matches the bleakest expectations of even the most anxious supporters on Merseyside.
The brutal analysis from L’Equipe, which described Liverpool as having “crumbled” at the Etihad and identified both Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah as “in trouble,” reflects a consensus that has been building across European football since Liverpool began their domestic unravelling. Eurosport France described Sunday’s performance as “a real blow” ahead of the PSG encounter, and the view from Paris is that Luis Enrique’s European champions will be licking their lips at what they saw in Manchester.
Alisson Becker’s injury, confirmed by Slot before the Cup tie on Saturday, removes the one element that might have given Liverpool a chance of a heroic European night. The Brazilian goalkeeper will be absent for both legs against PSG and is not expected back until toward the end of the season. Giorgi Mamardashvili, who started in his place on Saturday, was identified by L’Equipe as lacking the footwork and positional reading of his predecessor — a targeted criticism that reflects the very specific vulnerabilities PSG are likely to exploit.
Slot has responded to the scrutiny by projecting focus on the immediate task while backing Salah to contribute over the final weeks. “He has always given everything he had for this club, in all the years he has been here,” Slot said of the departing Egyptian forward. “I hope he can add two more trophies before the end of the season. If we have a Mo in the form he has been in for these last few years, that will be a big help for us.” The generosity of that framing is notable given that Salah’s form this season has been inconsistent by his own extraordinary standards — and his penalty miss at the Etihad, his second spot-kick failure in a month, underlined the concern.
The institutional picture at Liverpool is clearer than the public pressure might suggest. The Athletic’s James Pearce, among the most reliable Liverpool correspondents, has reported that Fenway Sports Group retains full confidence in Slot and intends to keep him in the dugout next season regardless of how the next fortnight plays out. The rationale is that Slot won the Premier League title in his debut season with the club — a feat that creates a significant credit balance — and that the current underperformance is partly attributable to factors he couldn’t control, including a summer rebuild that has yet to fully bed in.
The Xabi Alonso question — whether Liverpool should pursue the newly available former manager as Slot’s replacement — has come up repeatedly in fan discussion and sections of the media. Reports from The Times suggest that Liverpool harbour doubts about Alonso’s preferred three-at-the-back system, which would require significant squad adjustment. Slot himself has reportedly told friends he expects to be at Liverpool next season, and was seen on Monday reiterating publicly that he is “heavily involved” in planning for the summer transfer window.
For now, the focus is Paris. PSG, who eliminated Chelsea 8-2 on aggregate in the round of 16, represent an opponent of a different order to anything Liverpool has faced domestically this season. Whether Slot’s squad can find the reserves of character and tactical discipline to compete over two legs will go a long way toward defining how his tenure ultimately looks — not just this season, but beyond it.
