The setting was an opulent govt field at Fenway Park, residence of baseball’s Boston Red Sox, in July 2012.
Liverpool’s principal proprietor John W Henry took a seat, having granted a uncommon interview to these of us from the Merseyside media who had been protecting the membership’s pre-season tour of North America.
Two months earlier, Liverpool’s Fenway Sports Group (FSG) possession had sacked a membership icon in supervisor Kenny Dalglish and subsequently appointed Brendan Rodgers as his substitute. In that 2011-12 marketing campaign, Liverpool had gained the League Cup and narrowly misplaced the FA Cup remaining to Chelsea but trailed residence a disappointing eighth in the Premier League.
“The FA Cup would not have made any difference had he won it,” Henry mentioned bluntly. “I think it was obvious to every Liverpool fan that something was wrong and something needed to be done.”
FSG’s angle in the direction of the home cups has not modified in the close to 14 years since. Now greater than ever, qualifying for the Champions League is considered as much more necessary, given the income doing so generates.
Winning the FA Cup wouldn’t have saved Arne Slot’s job this summer season, in the identical approach as bowing out of the competitors at the quarter-final stage on Saturday is not going to significantly affect how this troubled season is considered by his bosses at FSG.
However, it is the method of the humiliating 4-0 quarter-final defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium that ought to set alarm bells ringing on each side of the Atlantic.
After a vivid begin, Liverpool capitulated, conceding 4 occasions in the house of 20 minutes both aspect of half-time. The incontrovertible fact that no additional embarrassment was inflicted owed extra to City easing off than any discernible enchancment from the guests.
Slot’s Liverpool look so brittle, so damaged. Rather than dig deep when confronted with adversity, they wilt. The “mentality monsters” the Dutchman’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp used to speak about now resemble mentality minnows. The physique language is so poor — too many gamers feeling sorry for themselves relatively than taking duty.
Dominik Szoboszlai bemoaned the lack of “fighting spirit” afterwards, and what was most galling about that damaging spell in the match when Liverpool fell to items was the lack of ability to do even the fundamentals.
“If you tell me that from 15 runs City made, we didn’t follow them 15 times, then I don’t agree with you,” Slot mentioned.
“But if you simply look at the goals, I see runs not being followed, I see crosses not being blocked, I see duels not being won. Every single time we forget to block a cross or follow a runner, then it was a goal. No one will remember it, but in the first 35 minutes, there was a lot to like from my team.”
The rot set in after Virgil van Dijk’s rash problem on Nico O’Reilly allowed Erling Haaland to interrupt the impasse from the penalty spot. Florian Wirtz failed to trace Antoine Semenyo in the build-up to the second objective, with Ibrahima Konate overwhelmed far too simply in the air by Haaland.
Van Dijk gave away a penalty that allowed City to take a 1-0 lead (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
The third was even worse, with Joe Gomez inexplicably gifting the ball to Marc Guehi from a Liverpool throw-in. Two passes later, Semenyo was operating in behind Van Dijk to attain. The fourth noticed Slot’s aspect plumb better depths with O’Reilly allowed to waltz by way of and tee up Haaland to finish his hat-trick.
What a nightmare begin to a season-defining run of fixtures. A way of trepidation will accompany Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final first leg towards holders Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes. Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue can be licking their lips at the sight of such evident frailties.
The buck stops with Slot. The ease with which opponents are in a position to play by way of Liverpool factors to evident tactical points. He’s been unable to seek out options to the issues which have dogged his soon-to-be-deposed Premier League champions all season and excuses are sporting skinny.
“Again, we faced a team that was outperforming their xG (expected goals) by a mile, and that’s happened constantly. We are always under ours,” he mentioned on Saturday. “It would be nice if we could score a goal once in a while from the chances we create.”
Yes, Mohamed Salah and Hugo Ekitike had been responsible of lacking huge alternatives when it was 0-0, with the former’s depressing afternoon summed up by his failure to transform a second-half penalty.
But City, who created an xG of 2.5 versus 1.4 for the guests, had been slicker, faster, confirmed better starvation and had been extra ruthless in all departments. Given how Liverpool have gone toe-to-toe with City all through a lot of the Pep Guardiola period, the chasm that has opened up between the sides this season is alarming.
Liverpool have misplaced the three conferences by a mixed rating of 9 targets to 1. That’s some fall from grace having carried out the double over City en path to the title a yr in the past.
The most damning indictment of what they served up at the Etihad on Saturday afternoon was the sight of away supporters heading for the exits earlier than the hour mark, after City went 4 up. You may hardly blame them, given how badly they’d been let down.
It was a tough afternoon for Liverpool followers at the Etihad (Carl Recine/Getty Images)
“We don’t want them to leave early. We have to perform better,” Slot mentioned. “It is up to us to react for them and for ourselves.”
This was Liverpool’s fifteenth defeat of the marketing campaign in all competitions — their most since 2014-15, when the wheels got here off Rodgers’ reign. That was the season that started with Luis Suarez’s sale to Barcelona, after they made a hash of changing him with the signings of Mario Balotelli and Rickie Lambert.
Saturday was the heaviest loss of Slot’s close to two-season reign, but the fifth time in 2025-26 that Liverpool have been overwhelmed by three targets or extra.
The mitigating components have been nicely documented, but the supervisor continues to haemorrhage help amongst the fanbase. Some pointedly chanted the title of Xabi Alonso, the former Liverpool midfielder turned coach who is accessible after being fired by Real Madrid in January, as they made their approach out of the Etihad.
FSG desires to provide the Dutchman the probability to place issues proper subsequent season, but that place can be untenable if the marketing campaign utterly unravels in the coming weeks.
That interval straight after half-time right here was the most worrying. Whatever Slot mentioned in the dressing room throughout the break clearly didn’t hit residence as Liverpool received worse relatively than higher. He was additionally too gradual to make substitutions.
Now it’s Champions League or bust.
Bringing a seventh European Cup to Anfield in May appears fanciful. Securing the top-five end his group must play in UEFA’s blue-riband membership competitors once more subsequent season appears daunting sufficient with the fixtures they’ve left — the seven matches embrace journeys to Everton (presently three factors behind them in eighth), Manchester United (third) and Aston Villa (fourth), plus residence video games with Chelsea (sixth) and Brentford (seventh).
Can Slot summon a response from the wreckage of such an abject give up?
Liverpool’s illustrious European historical past is plagued by heroic tales.
Given their present plight, they’ll want one other miracle to get previous PSG.
