The smell of cold, rain-soaked concrete lingered in the air at Anfield on Tuesday night, a fitting atmosphere for the damp squib that was Liverpool’s European exit. Mohamed Salah’s illustrious time on Merseyside is sputtering to an anti-climactic end, and frankly, it feels like the whole club is drifting. Paris Saint-Germain didn’t even need to shift into top gear to dismantle Arne Slot’s side, walking away with a 2-0 win on the night and a 4-0 aggregate thrashing that sends them through while the Reds are left with absolutely nothing to show for their massive, record-breaking summer splurge.
It’s hard to ignore how quickly things have fallen apart. Just last season, Liverpool were Premier League champions, and the front office authorized a staggering £450 million transfer spree. Everyone expected that money to cement their dominance. Instead, the campaign started under a dark cloud after the tragic death of Diogo Jota. It’s impossible to measure exactly how much that weighed on the squad, but the pitch hasn’t lied; it’s been a shambolic season.
Arne Slot is in real trouble now. Or maybe he was already? It’s hard to tell when the results are this inconsistent.
Salah, having already made his frustrations known with that public outburst back in December, spent both legs of this tie on the bench. It’s just strange seeing him reduced to a cameo role while the season burns down. Andy Robertson is heading for the exit too, and when you look around the pitch, the core of that 2019 Champions League-winning squad—Van Dijk, Alisson, Gomez—is thinning out faster than anyone anticipated.
They tried to rebuild, clearly. Bringing in Alexander Isak for £125 million and adding Wirtz, Ekitike, and others was supposed to be the answer. But between the injuries—poor Ekitike looking at a ruptured Achilles—and the failure of the new guys to gel, the whole thing just… collapsed. It feels like they spent all that cash only to end up with a squad that can’t even hold it together for half an hour. Slot’s comments after the game were telling, almost resigned, as he talked about how little time he actually had to see those big-money signings play together. It’s hard to build a rhythm when the treatment room is busier than the training ground.
Now, the fans are already chanting Xabi Alonso’s name. It happened during that rough 4-0 loss to City earlier this month and the energy is still there, lingering in the stands. With Alonso currently available after leaving Madrid, the writing feels like it’s on the wall for Slot, even if they manage to scrape into the top four for next year. Is it fair to fire him a year after winning the league? Maybe not, but at this level, that’s just how it goes—or maybe the club has already decided they need a fresh start regardless.