Pressure Mounts on Arne Slot as Liverpool Fall Apart at Bournemouth

Another week, another hammer blow. Liverpool’s 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth has left Arne Slot’s side languishing in sixth in the Premier League table, with just five wins in their last 18 league games. As David Lynch said bluntly on Anfield Index’s Media Matters podcast: “Liverpool got everything they deserve for another utterly abject performance.” The word he’d have added, he admitted, if there were more Twitter characters? “Abysmal!”

No Excuses Left After Bournemouth Collapse

Slot’s Reds started brightly but faded fast. “They kind of dominated those first 20 minutes but they do nothing with it,” Lynch explained, pointing out the only shot of note was a speculative Salah effort worth just 0.05 xG. From there, Bournemouth – who had won just once in their last 14 – took control.

The comeback that followed was a mirage. “It was purely set-piece based,” said Lynch. “They hadn’t done enough outside of that to actually merit being at 2-2… it would have been a travesty if Liverpool had won.”

Statistically, the picture is damning. “Big chances: six to one in Bournemouth’s favour,” Lynch noted. “Expected goals around two and a half to less than one. Bournemouth deserved that win, Liverpool were abysmal.”

Slot’s Decisions Under Fire

Lynch was crystal clear: Slot is now under serious pressure. “The whole setup’s making everyone look terrible,” he said. “There’s no patterns of play and creation.” Even with 66% possession, Liverpool were “useless in attack.”

But it’s not just tactics, it’s management. “He barely uses a sub in Marseille until very late,” Lynch reminded listeners, adding that playing Kostas Tsimikas “for one half and disrupting your back four” instead of giving Robertson minutes in Europe was “madness.”

Slot’s reliance on a small core of players is catching up with him. “You can’t have 14 or 15 players and say, I’ll use the rest in an emergency,” said Lynch. “You’re going to have to start your backup six in a Premier League game.”

The excuses are also wearing thin. “Slot talked about tiredness after the match, Virgil van Dijk about injuries,” Lynch said, before adding pointedly: “Bournemouth fans were retorting, ‘We’ve got seven missing.’ It just doesn’t stack up really as an excuse.”

Van Dijk’s Nightmare, Salah’s Silence

No one escaped criticism, not even Liverpool’s most senior figures. “It was a horror show from the skipper,” Lynch admitted of Van Dijk, noting his part in two of the three goals conceded. “It’s just a mistake,” he clarified, “but when he and others are making them at the same time, you’ve got to ask why so many of your players are out of form simultaneously.”

Salah, too, came in for scrutiny. “He missed some good chances or made some wrong decisions,” Lynch said. “There’s no attacking patterns, there’s no link up.”

The truth? “Almost every area of the team was bad. Simple as that.”

No Sign This Will Get Better

The statistics are damning. Since the fifth game of the season, Liverpool have collected just 21 points in 18 league games. “That’s relegation form, literally,” Lynch said. “Five wins in 18 – worse form than Everton over that stretch.”

Despite Slot’s title-winning start last season, the form since September tells a different story. “There’s no signs it’s turning,” Lynch said. “Even that 13-game unbeaten run was a nonsense. They haven’t played well in it.”

With Liverpool now outside the Champions League places and facing mounting pressure from below, Lynch delivered his starkest verdict yet: “I think there is no chance of Liverpool being in the Champions League next season.”

It’s a damning indictment of how far and how fast Liverpool have fallen. The pressure on Arne Slot isn’t building – it’s already here.