Liverpool\u2019s hierarchy appears determined to keep Arne Slot in place for the remainder of the season, with club sources insisting stability is the preferred line. Comfortably adrift of Arsenal and Manchester City in the title race, Liverpool are instead locked in a scrap for Champions League qualification, and the club has given the Dutch head coach breathing room amid a difficult period.<\/p>\n
David Ornstein was clear on the matter during a Q&A for The Athletic, repeatedly confirming he had heard no whispers of Xabi Alonso being considered. \u201cPeople might not like to hear that,\u201d he wrote, \u201cand if I\u2019m proved wrong you can all laugh at me.\u201d That view has been echoed in other outlets and appears to reflect an internal desire to project calm while Slot attempts to steer the team through a testing run-in.<\/p>\n
Much of the club\u2019s defence of Slot rests on context. Slot has previously insisted that he is confident of keeping his job regardless of Liverpool\u2019s Premier League finish\u2014J\u00fcrgen Klopp missed out on Europe\u2019s premier club competition, he pointed out \u2014and it appears that faith is justified. The head coach has also said he feels \u201ccomplete support\u201d from the club\u2019s owners Fenway Sports Group (FSG), chief executive Michael Edwards and sporting director Richard Hughes. \u201cThe club knows what period of time we are in,\u201d he pointedly added earlier this month.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s case is supported by a catalogue of misfortune. The squad has been affected by the tragedy of Diogo Jota\u2019s passing and a severe injury crisis. Alexander Isak had only just returned from a freak leg break when Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 ruptured his Achilles tendon by slipping over. Isak, Ekitik\u00e9 and Florian Wirtz arrived in the same summer for a combined fee of $432.8 million (\u00a3320 million) yet have only been able to play 116 minutes together.<\/p>\n
Xabi Alonso\u2019s recent Real Madrid spell has been cited as a counterexample. He was relieved of his duties on Jan. 12 after winning 20 of his 28 matches this season, and concerns about dressing-room control and tactical preference for a back-three have been offered as reasons Liverpool would be cautious about pursuing him.<\/p>\n
Slot is expected to remain in charge for the final six fixtures of the campaign:
\nSunday, April 19 \u2014 Everton (A) \u2014 2\u20131 W
\nSaturday, April 25 \u2014 Crystal Palace (H) \u2014 2\u20131 L
\nSunday, May 3 \u2014 Man Utd (A) \u2014 2\u20131 L
\nSaturday, May 9 \u2014 Chelsea (H) \u2014 2\u20131 L
\nSunday, May 17 \u2014 Aston Villa (A) \u2014 2\u20130 W
\nSunday, May 24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Club sources say Liverpool will back Arne Slot for the run-in; Xabi Alonso is not an option in May.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12207,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1084,195,299],"class_list":["post-12208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-achilles-injury","tag-alexander-isak","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}