Liverpool’s Dutch manager Arne Slot is pictured prior to the UEFA Champions League football match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Liverpool FC in Frankfurt, western Germany on October 22, 2025. (Photo by Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV / AFP) (Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images)
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It was supposed to get better, not worse, for Arne Slot’s new-look Liverpool.
Less than a month ago, as the Reds were coming out on the right side of last-minute winners, the concern among players was that they were making things unnecessarily complicated for themselves.
“I think we need to maybe get back to winning a bit simpler and a bit easier,” said defender Andy Robertson after Liverpool had let a two-goal lead slip against Atletico Madrid, which they managed to eventually win thanks to a last-gasp Virgil Van Dijk header.
“Obviously, it’s a great thing to have been able to keep going right to the end, but when you’re 2-0 up and you’re playing so well in the first half, it should have been a more comfortable night.”
At that stage, it seemed inconceivable that the Reds would get worse. Having signed one of the division’s best strikers, Alexander Isak, the common assumption was that, as other celebrated acquisitions, like Florian Wirtz, settled, the reigning champions would start to steamroll their way through the Premier League.
A last-minute defeat at Crystal Palace could be easily excused. The Eagles are no mugs, and there were fine margins in the loss, which could have fallen in the Reds’ favor. Likewise, a subsequent away defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League came in a game when two penalty decisions went against them.
It was a point made by coach Arne Slot after a third successive loss, this time in the last minute against Chelsea.
“Last season we lost against Chelsea as well,” the Dutchman said.
“Stamford Bridge is always difficult. We were very close to a result. Small margins. As I said at Galatasaray, we had a one-vs-one then they get a penalty. We concede in extra, extra time against Palace. And then today they score a goal that could go at either end.”
“After we scored 1-1 it went our way and I think I was waiting for us to score the second. Decision-making could’ve been better, last 10-15 minutes was end-to-end. We arrived in their 18-yard box with [Andy] Robertson, we couldn’t control the ball but again it’s fine margins like it’s been for as long as I’ve been here.
“Last week, same as this week two difficult away games, the fine margins haven’t been in our favor.”
The trouble for Slot is that for the fourth successive match, the Reds found themselves on the wrong side of a tight game.
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 19: Harry Maguire of Manchester United celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield on October 19, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)
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This time, it was Manchester United at Anfield, who, for years, had been an incredibly accommodating opponent, winning at their bitter rivals for the first time in a decade.
Harry Maguire’s header in the last 10 minutes of the game was undoubtedly the lowest ebb of a bad run.
In the press conference after the game, Slot was asked whether addressing the slump was his biggest challenge as a manager.
“I think as a manager you face constantly challenges,” he replied.
“When I just started, you face the challenge of being a new manager and then you need to win games. Then when you do well you go to a bigger club and people are like, ‘Oh, let’s see how he does over there.’
“Then you go to be the successor of Jürgen Klopp and people say this is the biggest challenge you ever faced.
“Now we have lost four times in a row and that’s also a challenge. So, the life of a football manager is an ongoing challenge. If you win games you want to keep winning, if you lose games you want to start winning again.”
Soccer’s media circus constantly needs a team crisis to write about and the bigger the club, the better the story.
So it was inevitable that this poor run of games would prompt premature and deep questions about whether a deeper issue was at play.
Despite being hailed for its mental fortitude after the run of wins at the start of the season, questions have now been asked about whether confidence might become brittle.
Slot didn’t accept the premise: “Do we lose confidence? I cannot see it yet, because every single game we’ve lost, we were able to create, in the second half, an unbelievable amount of chances.
“If you look back at all the three games we’ve lost in the Premier League, if you just put all the highlights [next to] each other, you would say it’s hardly possible that they lose this game.
“So if we can keep producing what we are doing and do a few things a little bit better, then there is every reason to expect that we start to win football games again.”
Hot takes on this run of form should be avoided in the same way that drawing too many conclusions from the previous run of wins.
The losing streak was ended dramatically with a five-goal mauling of Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.
Let’s give Slot more time before deciding if the side is really in crisis.