WIll Arne Slot be sacked? November fixtures set to define Liverpool 2025/26 season

After winning the Premier League title in resounding fashion last season, the Liverpool fan base had high expectations for manager Arne Slot in his sophomore campaign.

The Dutchman lifted the league trophy at the end of his first season in charge, and after a summer of exorbitant spending to refresh and improve the squad, there was a belief that the Reds could not only repeat last year’s feat but also advance towards lifting multiple trophies in the end.

Instead, it’s been a struggle from the onset. Alarm bells rang almost immediately at the start of the campaign, and while the Reds managed to grind out a run of last-gasp victories early on, those close shaves have given way to adverse results that have laid their problems bare.

Liverpool ended October on a four-match losing streak in the Premier League, with a 5-1 Champions League win at Eintracht Frankfurt the only uptick over five defeats in six across all competitions. There is suddenly pressure on the Dutch manager just months off a triumphant debut campaign in England.

The Sporting News takes a look at the current reports regarding Slot’s employment status, what has gone wrong for Liverpool thus far, and why the club’s seven games throughout November could define their season.

MORE: Updated list of Premier League top goal scorers for 2025/26 season

Will Arne Slot be sacked by Liverpool?

While the current run of form has been difficult for Liverpool, and their recent results have put the club and management under pressure, there is reportedly no concern about the employment of Arne Slot as it currently stands.

Freelance journalist Fabrizio Romano stated on his YouTube channel that Slot’s position is not under threat.

“Internally, Liverpool absolutely…really, really trust Arne Slot. They are 100% convinced that Arne Slot is the best manager to handle this situation. Obviously, it’s been a poor start to the season, but Liverpool are convinced that everything is going to be ok, that it will take some time to assess the squad with the new signings, to change something and get back to the attitude from last season, but Liverpool have full trust in Arne Slot. There is a very good communication on a daily basis between the directors, all people at the club in management, and Arne Slot. There is no bad relationship, and no problems with the players and Arne Slot, so everything is really under control.”

Romano goes on to chalk up Liverpool’s current poor run of form to “tactics, and also of course some mental” struggles.

MORE: Liverpool’s all-time leading goal scorer as Mohamed Salah positions himself as a club legend

Liverpool fixtures in November to define their 2025/26 season

The month of November will see Liverpool’s season put squarely on the line.

Starting October 29 and running through November 30, the Reds will contest seven matches across all competitions, five of which are at home and one more a short trip down the M62. Only their month-ending Premier League visit to London will see Liverpool leave the familiar confines of the north west.

The seven-game slate sees the Reds face a bit of everything, and it will challenge their true credentials for finishing the season with any trophies at all.

It begins on October 29 with a Carabao Cup fourth-round match against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace, a team that overcame Liverpool in this season’s Community Shield on penalties before beating them at Selhurst Park last month. Then the four-match losing streak in league play is put to the test against Aston Villa, who have rebounded from their poor early-season form.

A meeting with Champions League favourites Real Madrid and former Liverpool player Xabi Alonso is next on the cards, in a game that actually could be a favourable matchup for the Reds. With Liverpool done in recently by their own frenetic pace, a forced deceleration game against Alonso’s control-freak tactics could actually play into their hands.

After a trip tip to take on familiar foes Manchester City prior to the November international break, the month finishes with three winnable games, albeit none of which will be a walkover. Home games against Sean Dyche’s Nottingham Forest and defending Dutch champions PSV lead into a visit to struggling West Ham.

How Liverpool emerge from this run of fixtures will either see the Reds out of title contention on various fronts, or re-establish their candidacy for silverware. It’s hard to imagine a middle path.

Upcoming Liverpool fixtures heading into and through November

Why are Liverpool losing matches?

A litany of tactical and personnel concerns have led to a string of negative results for the Reds. While there is no simple explanation, a combination of issues has coagulated, blocking up Liverpool’s ability to pick up points.

Defending counter-attacks

Unlike last season, when Liverpool were able to attack with vigor whilst remaining stout against opposition counter-attacks, this version of Liverpool looks highly susceptible to transitional flow by the opponent.

Across the 2024/25 Premier League season, Liverpool conceded just two fast-break goals all year long. This season, they conceded two in the first match alone.

While Arne Slot has pointed to sloppy passing in midfield resulting in lost possession in dangerous areas, the Reds are also over-committing players into the attack, leaving themselves exceedingly vulnerable at the back. Full-backs and central midfielders are too often finding themselves too high up the pitch upon losing possession, which sees Liverpool exposed at the back in transition.

This is a tactical flaw brought on by other complications listed below, as many of these problems for Liverpool are interconnected.

Ball progression

One of the main keys to Liverpool’s 2024/25 Premier League title was the otherworldly ball progression capabilities of Trent Alexander-Arnold. The full-back ranked seventh in the English top flight for progressive passes, an outrageous number for a defender. Only Josko Gvardiol had more amongst Premier League defenders, tasked with similar responsibilities for Manchester City in the absence of traditional progressive machine Rodri.

With Alexander-Arnold departing for Real Madrid, Arne Slot has had to spread out his progressive responsibilities throughout the rest of the squad. The main two individuals who have taken on this load are Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz.

While Szoboszlai has been lauded as Liverpool’s best player so far this season, he has been jerked around multiple positions, including full-back and central midfield. He has been heroic in this regard, but expectations for his performances were lower than other superstars within the squad.

Cut to Wirtz, who has been burdened significantly by this progressive responsibility. At Bayer Leverkusen under Xabi Alonso, Wirtz was still saddled with moving the ball up the pitch, but it came at a much slower tempo, allowing him to distribute possession and then move into dangerous positions to receive the ball and create chances. With Liverpool playing at a feverish pace, he is not able to carry the ball forward and then move into attacking positions to remain effective in front of goal.

Across the 2024/25 season, Wirtz averaged 8.77 progressive passes received per 90 minutes in Champions League play and an enormous 11.83 in Bundesliga action. With Liverpool so far this year through nine league matches, that number has plummeted to 7.13 per 90 minutes and 5.69 in three Champions League games.

The direct result is that his goal threat has dipped considerably, taking just 1.52 shots per 90 minutes and failing to register a single goal. Despite this, he is still managing to produce a significant number of attacking opportunities for his teammates, which have all gone begging. Wirtz ranks eighth in the Premier League through nine games with 31 shot-creating actions, and 10th in shot assists with 15, but has yet to log a single assist.

Unable to shoulder the progressional load is Alexis Mac Allister, who has plummeted from last year’s peak form. The Argentine’s contributions to ball progression have cratered, seeing him go from 6.13 progressive passes per 90 minutes (84th percentile amongst midfielders) to just 3.6, which has resulted in a drop of playing time as Slot looks for other options.

Goalkeeping

Liverpool have been one of the worst goalkeeping teams so far this season in the Premier League, which was not a foreseeable concern.

Alisson manned the first six matches of the season, logging nine saves on 16 shots on target, conceding seven goals. Those numbers aren’t good, but the advanced metrics also largely see the Brazilian off the hook. Those 16 shots on target were worth an average of 0.4 xGOT, a significantly high number, meaning opponents were getting good looks that would be difficult to prevent. Ultimately, those 16 efforts add up to 6.5 xGOT, leaving Alisson with a poor but recoverable -0.5 differential.

Once the Brazilian went down with an injury, Giorgi Mamardashvili stepped in, with high expectations after the significant investment from Liverpool following the Georgian’s sensational 2023/24 campaign with Valencia.

In short, he’s been miserable in goal. He has conceded seven goals in three Premier League matches, coming from 5.2 xGOT across 18 shots on target. While he’s faced a significantly higher volume of opposition efforts than Alisson, he’s performed quite poorly, sporting a brutal -1.8 differential. This unsustainable total cannot continue over the long term.

Mohamed Salah has regressed suddenly and dramatically

The most glaring issue for Liverpool has been the sharp and glaring regression of Mohamed Salah.

The 33-year-old Egyptian has suddenly looked every bit of his advanced age, just after Liverpool allocated considerable resources to re-sign him over the summer to ward off interest from the Saudi Pro League.

There’s no way to sugarcoat Salah’s performances. He is receiving the ball in dangerous positions, with his 11 progressive passes received in the 90th percentile amongst wingers globally, and doing absolutely nothing with it.

Getty Images

Salah has two successful take-ons up to this point in the Premier League season, and is averaging just 2.13 shots per 90 minutes, over a full shot below last season’s mark of 3.23. Not only have his shots declined, but those shots are coming from worse positions, with a mark of 0.158 expected goals per shot presenting nearly a 25% dip from last season’s 0.208 level.

There’s plenty of time to turn things around, but worries that Father Time has come for Salah might be well-founded.

Putting it all together

So how do these various reasons all come together to see Liverpool regress from last year’s title-winning form?

With Alexander-Arnold gone and the full-back position completely refreshed, Arne Slot has needed to find new ways of progressing the ball from back to front.

With Salah unable to help shoulder the load, Liverpool have spread out the progressional responsibility across far too many individuals. This has resulted in the Reds being caught high up the pitch. Opponents are racking up an increased number of quality counter-attacking chances that the goalkeeper hasn’t been good enough to nullify.

Much of the progression has fallen at the feet of Florian Wirtz, who is capable in that regard but at the expense of his world-class goal contribution abilities in such a high-tempo offensive flow. Dominik Szoboszlai has managed to prove effective, but Slot’s constant lineup tinkering often leaves him in positions that fail to maximise his form.

There’s a big ol’ mess right now for Arne Slot to sort out at Liverpool, and while the club back him to figure out how to mix and match the expensive pieces in the end, the current struggles have compounded upon themselves to exacerbate each individual problem.