Liverpool can revive Salah by hiring “genius” Slot replacement

Every time it looks like Liverpool are beginning to show the first signs of progress under Arne Slot this season, reality knocks them right back down.

Defeat against Wolves at Molineux was a bad one, and while the Reds have the chance to put that loss to rights at the weekend, against Wolves, again, at Molineux in the FA Cup, there’s no question that this team teeter on the precipice.

Sixth in the Premier League and lacking any of their easy-on-the-eye fluency from last year, the reigning champions have been disastrous, and the consistency of their poor form right through the term has left many wondering whether the title-winning Dutch coach could be sacked before the start of the 2026/27 season.

The latest on Slot’s Liverpool future

FSG are, as ever, playing their cards close to their chest. Slot’s position in the Anfield dugout is under no immediate threat, but Liverpool supporters are fed up of so many poor performances, and failure to finish in the top five would prove a tipping point.

This team continue to look so imbalanced, with the sweeping changes in the summer transfer window last year having a negative effect on Slot’s system.

Slot has been vocal about his frustrations regarding the state of the Premier League right now. The football is certainly less fluid. However, his stale, uninspiring tactics have left a lot to be desired, and so such comments have left several Liverpool fans scratching their heads.

If Liverpool are going to make a change, they will need to brace themselves. The managerial market is tipped to go into overdrive come summer, and Xabi Alonso is going to be at the top of a lot of shopping lists.

Out of work since leaving Real Madrid this winter, the one-time Liverpool player is one of the most respected young coaches in the world, and Liverpool actually hoped to appoint him after Jurgen Klopp stood down in 2024.

The 44-year-old turned his former side down and fostered his coaching skills at Bayer Leverkusen for another year before joining Real Madrid.

Now unemployed, FSG and sporting director Richard Hughes could make their move, with plenty of credible links suggesting he’s at the top of their shortlist, should Slot be sacked. Indeed, reports earlier this year even suggested that talks had been held between the two parties.

Why Alonso would be perfect for Liverpool

Alonso is an expert man manager and a “genius tactician“, and he has been named as such by Sky Sports’ Felix Fischer. Any number of Liverpool first-teamers would stand a great chance of flourishing under his management, Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong both having hit their career peaks at Leverkusen.

Alonso struggled at Real Madrid, but that’s not to say he isn’t an elite manager, and while he likes to implement a 3-4-2-1 formation, he is adaptable and played with a more conventional 4-3-3.

Having won an invincible domestic double with Bayer Leverkusen during the 2023/24 season, losing only to Atalanta in the Europa League final, Alonso has developed enough to succeed a coach like Slot at Liverpool, bringing fresh ideas and a hardiness born from a testing spell at the Santiago Bernabeu.

His ability to raise players’ games might even play to the favour of Mohamed Salah, whose decline this season has been one of the most saddening parts of Slot’s side’s collapse.

There’s no question that Salah has regressed, steeply, this season. But it would be a fallacy to say the first iteration of the winger could be found under Slot’s wing last year.

We have maybe never seen so cultured and polished a striker and creator of goals, but Salah’s success was built on the premise that Slot would ease his defensive workload and allow him to lay waste to Premier League defences.

It’s clear that Salah is reaching the end of his illustrious career in England, but it’s also clear that he’s capable of more than he has been offering.

Given the importance of signing a left-sided forward this summer, and the uncertainty that surrounds Federico Chiesa, it might not be a bad thing to hold onto the definitive Anfield superstar of the last decade.

All this is to say that Alonso might be able to get a tune out of the Egypt international, who created such a stable attacking system and winning culture with Leverkusen. On top of this, he actually kept Madrid at a respectable level, and Los Blancos’ recent struggles emphasise a problem that is bigger than the Spanish legend.

Whatever happens in the dugout, Liverpool do need to make changes out wide this summer. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Salah needs to go.

This is one of the greatest forwards in Premier League history, and under Alonso’s guidance, maybe there’s still time for one last dance.