Liverpool boss Arne Slot could be sacked at the end of the season

Jamie Carragher has warned Arne Slot that his future at Liverpool could come under threat if the team’s poor run continues.

Slot is facing renewed scrutiny after Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by Galatasaray in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday night.

Mario Lemina’s early header from a set piece secured the win for the Turkish side, who also defeated Liverpool by the same scoreline in September.

The result leaves Liverpool needing to overturn the deficit in next week’s second leg at Anfield to reach the quarter-finals.

Florian Wirtz, Alexis Mac Allister and Hugo Ekitike all missed presentable chances for the visitors.

Arne Slot accepted responsibility for the defeat after the match, while Carragher delivered a blunt assessment of the performance and predicted Liverpool could be eliminated in the tie.

“This was an end-to-end game that was a bad game in the end for Liverpool. Bad result, really poor in the second half as well,” he said on CBS Sports.

“First half started well, a lot of that was to do with the mistakes of Galatasaray. I don’t think Galatasaray had a great team. It’s still a team Liverpool should beat and should go through.

“So, I’m still 98 per cent. It was 99 a couple of weeks ago. So, I still think Liverpool will go through. But, this is a worry for the for the manager and the team. What we saw tonight is what we saw in early on the group stages away to Galatasaray early on the season.

“This team is just a million miles off where it was supposed to be this season which was that we’d be talking about them in the same light the way we speak about Bayern Munich right now.

“That was the whole point of Liverpool spending over £400million in the summer was to go the next step from winning the Premier League to go and win the Champions League.

“And we’re talking about a team who have now got to change a deficit against Galatasaray, which I think they will, but I don’t have any hope for Liverpool going any further than that if it’s Paris Saint-Germain in the next round as I think it may be, and that’s that for me is a big worry.”

Liverpool are currently sixth in the Premier League following last week’s defeat to bottom side Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Their title defence has long since unravelled and, while Jamie Carragher believes the players must shoulder much of the blame, he warned that it could ultimately be Arne Slot who pays the price if results do not improve.

“And it’s not just a defeat, I think the performances from Liverpool this season are a big worry for the manager,” Carragher added.

“I think I said on this show in the group stage he’s got to do something, he’s got to change something. He’s tried everything really, in lots of different ways, but nothing seems to be able to work and it’s just at no stage this season have I ever felt Liverpool were in control of a football match.

“It’s either end-to-end basketball, so he wanted to stop that and change that, and then it becomes slow and boring and predictable. Do I think another manager could come in straight away, or any manager, say you give him that squad? I don’t think it dramatically changes.

“I really do think the makeup of the squad, how it’s been put together, the lack of options in certain areas, is a is a big problem as well. So it’s not just all about the manager but as we know, managers carry the can.”

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