Arne Slott’s Liverpool are chasing shocks but an elite manager could have fixed the club last season, says Jamie Carragher | Football news

Jamie Carragher was shocked by Arne Slot’s sacking but believes a better manager could have fixed Liverpool last season.

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

Liverpool said “change is necessary for the club to continue moving forward” as they qualified for the Champions League with just 60 points, their lowest total since 2015/16.

Liverpool had no intention of parting ways with Slott during the season but came to the conclusion that a change of leadership was needed after reassessing the situation at the end of the campaign – and to Carragher’s surprise.

“I was sad for Arne Slot,” he said. “I would almost support any decision and see both sides of the argument, but it’s shocking.

“I think the best football manager, the absolute creme de la creme, probably finds a way to fix Liverpool last season and make it better, but he hasn’t been helped by recruitment.

“You look at those players, have they done well? There is only (Hugo) Ekitike who has played well, no one has done well. Can you put that to the manager, do you need to get more from them?

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

“A lot of people can point to where Liverpool were last season, and the players who were there the year before, the complete difference in their performance.”

Carra: Salah’s situation is not there

Carragher believes that many Liverpool fans turned on Slot when Mo Salah’s public spat with the head coach didn’t help either.

“There was no doubt he lost a lot of fans this season,” said Carragher. Sometimes, I thought that was cruel, after what had happened 12 months before.

“Supporters now have a lot of influence on the internet and, that quickly turned into a manager.

“Then you talk about the strength of the player, that wouldn’t help, the situation with Mo Salah. I’m not happy about that, I don’t want Liverpool to be a club where there’s strength of players or players who talk publicly about the manager who won the league last year. That’s not there, but that wouldn’t help.

“All those things combined, maybe the team’s hand is forced.”

Bournemouth coach Andoni Iroala is the frontrunner to win the slot, Sky Sports News you understand, as official negotiations are expected to begin.

Carragher thinks Iraola’s philosophy can rediscover the high-class style of play preferred at Anfield, but his appointment could still be a risk.

“He has done a fantastic job in the Premier League, what Bournemouth has done is very good, but there are still big questions,” he said.

“The way he plays is the way Liverpool want to go back: to top-class football. We know he’s good at that, but it’s not just about that when you’re Liverpool manager.

“Getting off the ball was a big problem for Arne Slot, it was the thing that worried me the most, and I said all season that Liverpool without the ball was very 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 comes from the football, not just from it, so he’s amazing in that.

“My concern is, you can play at that intensity when you play every three days, and that was once a week against Bournemouth. That’s completely different.

“Whenever you bring a top team manager to England, you think, ‘Can he win me the league?’. That’s a big question mark around him, or any manager coming in, but Liverpool have a manager who has won the league, so I was always sad.”