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Despite sending nearly £450 million on reinforcements last summer, Liverpool currently sit fourth in the Premier League, and are on track to finish 26 points worse off than their title-winning tally this season.
For a plethora of reasons this season, it’s been a difficult campaign for the Reds. Despite this, many reliable sources seem to indicate that Arne Slot will keep his job going into the 2026/27 season; a prospect many of the Anfield faithful must fear.
Slot’s side aren’t the first side to suffer a rough season after a dominant title triumph. So what went wrong for these other sides?
Liverpool- 2021/21
In Liverpool’s first season as defending Premier League champions, Klopp’s side were burdened by centre-half troubles. The club let Dejan Lovren go in the summer, leaving them with three first team centre-half options for the season.
Their severe lack of depth was quickly exposed when Virgil Van Dijk suffered an ACL injury in October 2020, which meant by the end of the season Klopp had to utilise 18 different pairings in the role, mainly utilising Nat Phillips and Rhys Williams towards the end of the campaign.
With no Kopites to cheer them on throughout the season too, their side’s home form shockingly declined, with their record 68-game unbeaten spell being abruptly ended by Sean Dyche’s Burnley. The Reds went on to lose six straight home games in a row after this, including an embarrassing 4-1 defeat to Manchester City and a 2-0 loss in the Merseyside Derby.
Due to Klopp’s legendary status at the club and the understanding of the unfortunate centre-back situation almost all season, there were no calls for the German to lose his job at the end of the season.
Chelsea- 2017/18
With the likes of Thibaut Courtois, N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard to name a few stars from that squad, Chelsea were crowned Premier League champions for the second time in three years in May 2017. Under Antonio Conte, a radical new system was implemented as the Blues moved to a three at the back for most of the season.
The summer of 2017 brought lots of investment, with the likes of Álvaro Morata, Tiemoué Bakayoko, Danny Drinkwater and Antonio Rüdiger arriving at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, none of these signings succeeded in East London, a scenario Conte likely saw as a matter foretold as he often disputed with the Chelsea board over transfer policy.
The current Napoli boss was a polarising figure in the dressing room too, reportedly telling Diego Costa he was not in his plan’s over text message. The Telegraph also reported on his poor approach to players, apparently having fallings out with senior players like Eden Hazard, Willian and David Luiz throughout the season.
Despite winning the FA Cup in 2018, a sour situation off the pitch and a 5th place finish meant the cup victory wasn’t enough for Conte to keep his job.
While Slot clearly is not as divisive as Conte, his brand of football rather than his character seems to be the factor that has turned so many against him this season. At least Conte ended his season with gold, something Liverpool will be unable to do this season.
Manchester United- 2013/14
Manchester United walked their way to the Premier League title in 2013, winning the league by 11 points with an excellent 89 points. This was to be Sir Alex Ferguson’s final season at the English giants, and on his way out recommended fellow Scot David Moyes to the board as his replacement.
With a figure such as Sir Alex, replacing him would have been the impossible task. Moyes was clearly out of his depth, leading United to at the time their worst points tally and their lowest finish ever. His bland tactics and uninspiring brand of football led to may reports of dressing room despair, which meant the current Everton boss was dismissed in April 2014.
It’s not hard to argue that Slot is out of his depth, despite winning the Premier League last season. This feat was completed by and large by Klopp’s team with limited mass tactical input. Watching how limp the Reds are too, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched that similar to Moyes, he’s lost the dressing room.
Chelsea- 2015/16
The second time Chelsea have featured on this list, in what was easily a much worse season for the Blues. The season started with José Mourinho at the helm, and on match day one a very public row with physio Eva Carneiro in a draw at Swansea set the tone for the season.
After nine losses in 16 games, the Port’s second stint at the club was over in December 2015. Dutchman Guus Hiddink took over until the end of the season, and the Blues barely scrapped a top 10 finish come May.
With no standouts for the side that season and a steep decline in the standards of all the players that season, most notably Eden Hazard’s worst season at the club during his seven year stint at the club. This is a symptom of many at Liverpool this season, with few players being able to finish the season with their head held high in the eyes of many fans.
Leicester City- 2016/17
Absolutely nobody expected Leicester City to lift the Premier League title in 2016, as the Foxes created one of the greatest stories in sports history. Despite the over £75 million in investment in the summer and retaining some key players like Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Kasper Schemichel, the Midlands club set the record for the worst title defence in the history of the league.
Nobody expected Claudio Ranieri’s side to come anywhere near it in the season, so few were shocked with this performance, especially after getting as far as the Champions League quarter finals before exiting at the hands of Atletico Madrid.
While it’s hard to draw too many comparisons between this side and Arne Slot’s side, many faithful Reds may have wished that as soon as things turned sour at Anfield, which certainly had happened by November following seven losses in 11 games in October and November including demolishing at the hands of PSV, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City.
Thumbnail image credit: Arne Müseler via Wikimedia Commons
