FSG agreed with Salah: loss of style meant Arne Slot had to go to win back fans | Andy Hunter

Mohamed Salah’s parting shot was to demand the return of heavy-metal football at Liverpool and, in their reasoning for sacking Arne Slot , the club’s hierarchy have concurred. It is a brutal, but understandable decision to remove Slot on the basis that Liverpool’s style must evolve, though responsibility for this season’s regression does not rest with the coach alone. Liverpool have never sacked a title-winning manager on their title-winning watch before now. Sir Kenny Dalglish’s dismissal came in his second, League Cup-winning spell in charge. That underlines the scale of the decision to sack a head coach who won the club’s record-equalling 20th league title 13 months ago and who handled the unprecedented trauma of Diogo Jota’s death with dignity and professionalism last summer. Slot deserved so much better than the vitriolic personal abuse that subsequently flowed down the sewage pipe of social media from many Liverpool supporters. He also deserved better than to feel he should be separate from the send-offs to Salah and Andy Robertson and the team’s traditional lap of honour after what proved to be his final game as head coach. But the distance between Slot and the Anfield crowd six days ago, between the Dutchman and the Liverpool team, was symptomatic of the divide that appeared during the campaign. …