Liverpool’s situation has reached the point where off-pitch details are now shaping the broader discussion around Arne Slot.
According to Lewis Steele for Mail Sport, the problems facing our head coach have stretched from the training ground all the way back to Bergentheim, his birthplace in the Dutch Bible Belt.
The full piece explains how the 47-year-old has been leaning on support from those closest to him after weeks in which we have lost nine of our last twelve matches.
The report describes his father Arend, a retired schoolmaster, as a demanding figure who would regularly ring last season with pointed questions such as: “Why did you make this substitution?” or, “How could you only win this game 2-1?”
Steele writes that the former Feyenoord coach would “smirk” as his dad insisted: “This performance was not exciting enough, son.”
The Mail Sport piece highlights examples such as an online poll of 7,000 supporters in which 71 per cent voted “Slot out”, and the empty seats and boos after the full-time whistle against PSV.
The final section suggests the hierarchy remain supportive and believe he has “credit in the bank”, but acknowledges that the next three league fixtures will decide whether Liverpool stabilise or accelerate towards a decision no one expected two months ago.
Our boss does have support though, Thomas Frank has insisted “Arne is clearly an unbelievable coach… he will 1000% find a way out”, giving contrast to the more sceptical mood described by Steele.
As the journalist concludes, this is the biggest week of the Dutchman’s career and winning the Premier League last season will not shield him from scrutiny if results fail to turn.
Steele reports that senior figures inside our dressing room are “shellshocked” with our current form.
Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah, Andy Robertson, Dominik Szoboszlai and Wataru Endo have been described as searching for solutions but unable to understand how the situation has deteriorated so quickly.
They’re not the only ones asking questions, with Jamie Carragher’s warning that “anything fewer than seven points will make an already unacceptable situation untenable” ahead of the West Ham, Sunderland and Leeds run.