Arne Slot sacked: Five games that led to Liverpool manager's departure including Man City, PSG, Spurs, Chelsea and PSV

Submitted by daniel on Sat, 30/05/2026 - 23:35

Liverpool struggled throughout 2025-26 after winning the Premier League just months prior, and the club finally made the decision to sack manager Arne Slot on Saturday.

The Reds boss managed to secure qualification to the Champions League, but it still seemed inevitable that he would depart after a slew of dire results towards the back end of the campaign.

Fans at Anfield - known for supporting their team and manager against the odds - booed the former Feyenoord coach on more than one occasion, and the atmosphere around the club had become increasingly toxic as the months wore on.

Here, after Slot was sacked, Sports Mole takes a look at five games that led to the Liverpool manager's departure.

Liverpool 1-4 PSV - November 26, 2025 (Champions League's league phase)

Liverpool kicked off 2024-25 with a remarkable run of seven consecutive victories, the majority of which were earned by last-gasp heroics from the likes of Federico Chiesa, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk.

However, when the Reds welcomed PSV Eindhoven to Anfield in November 2025 for a Champions League showdown, they headed into the game in shocking form.

A win was not a necessity that day, but being thrashed 4-1 by an Eredivisie side at Anfield - which is renowned as fortress the world over - was a humiliating and demoralising result.

Questions were already being asked about Slot's future when he recorded a run of six defeats in seven games a few weeks prior, but convincing wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid in early November had quelled the noise.

Suffering a ninth loss in 12 games, though, and in such embarrassing fashion, only served to confirm the doubts that fans had about the boss.

Liverpool 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur - March 15, 2026 (Premier League)

Unfortunately for Slot, he could not find the consistency needed to do so, and after a shocking 2-1 defeat against bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers on March 3, as well as a 1-0 loss in the first leg of the Champions League's round of 16 tie against Galatasaray, the Reds needed to find their feet against Tottenham Hotspur.

Igor Tudor was the man in the away dugout for Spurs that day, and after Liverpool conceded a 90th-minute equaliser from former Everton star Richarlison, the Anfield faithful were furious.

When the full-time whistle was blown, the crowd rang out with boos for the manager, the first prominent example of the animosity that had been brewing towards Slot spilling over into the Merseysiders' home ground.

As it turned out, Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Spurs in mid-March saw Tudor pick up the only point of his short-lived tenure with Tottenham, a damning indictment of the Reds' sullied standards.

Man City 4-0 Liverpool - April 4, 2026 (FA Cup quarter-final)

The Merseysiders were able to overturn their deficit in the Champions League's round of 16 with an impressive 4-0 victory over Galatasaray on March 18, and the Salah-led performance seemed to indicate that the team had turned a corner.

However, that hope was snuffed out almost immediately as Liverpool were beaten 2-1 by Brighton & Hove Albion three days later, before heading to the Etihad Stadium for their FA Cup quarter-final against rivals Manchester City.

The Reds were the underdogs against Pep Guardiola's side, and morale was low, but few could have anticipated the manner in which Slot's side capitulated.

Liverpool's midfield was repeatedly torn apart, leaving the backline exposed to wave after wave of City attacks, while the frontline proved ineffectual once again.

The then-champions had suffered heavy defeats against the Sky Blues in the past under Jurgen Klopp, but it felt as though the XI on the pitch surrendered the contest, and it was admitted after the fact by captain Van Dijk that the players indeed 'gave up'.

Fans exited the stadium early after witnessing the torrid display, chanting for Xabi Alonso on their way out of the ground, and when Dominik Szoboszlai made a disrespectful gesture towards the away end at full-time, it was clear that the spirit of the club had been broken.

PSG 2-0 Liverpool - April 8, 2026 (Champions League quarter-final first leg)

Mere days after the disaster at the Etihad, Liverpool were set to face the champions of Europe at the Parc des Princes, but rather than a fired-up performance to show some semblance of fight, supporters were treated to a cowardly showing.

Slot opted to utilise a three-man backline for the first time in his Reds career away to Paris Saint-Germain, and it felt as though the manager was aiming to avoid a thrashing that would do further damage to his reputation, rather than attempting to win the game.

To make space for the additional centre-back, Salah was dropped from the lineup, a move that would seem bizarre when his substitute appearance in the second leg saw the Egyptian play more balls into the box (12) and produce more expected assists (0.52) than any other player for either side across the entire 180 minute tie.

In the end, Liverpool's were still beaten 2-0 by PSG in the first leg, during which their overly defensive setup led to a putrid performance that generated zero shots on target.

Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea - May 9, 2026 (Premier League)

Booed multiple times. First time that Chelsea outran an opponent in the Premier League this season. Slot out-coached by an unqualified interim manager.

Perhaps the straw that broke the camel's back, Liverpool's 1-1 draw with Chelsea on May 9 spurred the Anfield crowd to boo Slot multiple times, a reaction that led to shock and outrage from pundits such as Jamie Carragher.

The Reds were out of all cup competitions at this stage, and needed to guarantee Champions League football in order to fuel their summer transfer plans.

However, Slot was unable to get the better of a managerless Chelsea side, and appeared to be tactically outmatched by Calum McFarlane, the Blues' interim boss that had not even completed his UEFA coaching badges.

After an uninspiring first 67 minutes, the manager decided to take 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha off for Alexander Isak, and given that the teenager had been Liverpool's best player - and only spark - to that point, fans booed Slot.

To make their point known even more clearly, sections of the Anfield crowd chanted Ngumoha's name, highlighting that the object of their ire was Slot himself.

Fans were heard once again booing the manager at the full-time whistle, and after finishing the season with a four-game winless run - and taking the race for Champions League football to the final day - Slot did not join the goodbye lap around the pitch against Brentford, knowing that his relationship with the crowd was likely beyond repair.

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