Arne Slot's Liverpool sacking a shock but an elite manager would have fixed club last season, says Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher was shocked by Arne Slot's sacking but believes an elite manager would have fixed Liverpool last season.

Slot was axed on Saturday after a disappointing fifth-placed finish in his second year in charge after leading the club to their 20th league title.

Liverpool said "change is necessary in order for the club to keep moving forward" having secured Champions League qualification with only 60 points, their lowest total since 2015/16.

• Transfer Centre LIVE! | Liverpool news & transfers?
• Redknapp: Player power contributed to Slot exit, but Iraola can handle pressure
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW?
• Choose the Sky Sports push notifications you want! ?

Liverpool had not intended to part ways with Slot during the season but came to the conclusion that a change of leadership was required after reassessing the situation at the end of the campaign - and it surprised Carragher.

"I was torn on Arne Slot," he said. "I would have almost backed any decision and I could see both sides of the argument, but it is a shock.

"I think an elite football manager, the absolute creme de la creme, probably finds a way of fixing Liverpool last season at some stage and making it better, but he wasn't helped with recruitment.

"You look at those players, have any of them done well? There's only (Hugo) Ekitike who's played well, none of the others have done well. You could put that on the manager, does he need to get more out of them?

"Should those players have done more? A lot more, yes. Should the people above them have given them a better squad going into this season? Yes.

"There's a lot of people to point the fingers at where Liverpool were last season, and also the players who were there the year before, a complete contrast in their performances."

Carra: Salah situation is not on

Carragher believes many Liverpool supporters had turned on Slot while Mo Salah's public falling out with the head coach also didn't help.

"There was no doubt he lost most of the supporters this season," Carragher said. "At times, I thought that was a little bit harsh, on the back of what had happened 12 months before.

"Supporter bases now have a huge influence online as well, and that had turned really quickly against the manager.

"Then you talk about player power, that can't have helped, the situation with Mo Salah. I'm not happy with that, I don't ever want Liverpool to become a club where there's player power or players that speak out publicly about a manager who won them the league the year before. That's not on, but of course that wouldn't help.

"All those things put together, maybe it's forced the club's hand."

Recently-departed Bournemouth head coach Andoni Iroala is the frontrunner to succeed Slot, Sky Sports News understands, with formal talks expected to commence.

Carragher reckons Iraola's philosophy can rediscover the high-tempo playing style that is preferred at Anfield, but his appointment would still be a risk.

"He's done a brilliant job in the Premier League, what Bournemouth have done is absolutely fantastic, but there are still huge question marks," he said.

"The way he plays is definitely the way Liverpool want to go back to: high-intensity football. We know he's fantastic at that, but it's not just all about that when you're the Liverpool manager.

"Off the ball was a big problem for Arne Slot, that was the thing that really worried me, and I said all season that Liverpool off the ball were so poor.

"That's a big part of Liverpool's DNA, not just under Jurgen Klopp. The reason we talk about the Anfield factor, a lot of it is off the ball, not just on it, so he's fantastic at that.

"My worry is, can you play at that intensity when you're playing every three days, and that was only getting played once a week with Bournemouth. That is completely different.

"Whenever you're bringing a manager in for a top club in England, you're thinking, 'Can he win me the league?'. That's a big question mark around him, or any manager coming in, but Liverpool had a manager who's won the league, so that's why I was always torn."

(c) Sky Sports 2026: Arne Slot's Liverpool sacking a shock but an elite manager would have fixed club last season, says Jamie Carragher