Arne Slot's seat just got hotter! Xabi Alonso set to cast a shadow over under-pressure Liverpool manager as Dutchman bids to revive Reds and keep his job

When Klopp dramatically revealed that he would leave Liverpool at the end of the 2023-24 campaign, the presumption was that Xabi Alonso would replace him. The Spaniard had made a hugely impressive start to his coaching career and was just over halfway through an undefeated, double-winning campaign in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen.

As a result, Alonso's was the hottest name on the managerial market. Nearly every elite club in Europe wanted him, and especially those that he had also represented as a player: Liverpool, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid. 

However, Alonso immediately made it clear that he wasn't ready to leave Leverkusen, which ruled him out of the running for the imminent vacancies on Merseyside and in Munich, and he ultimately decided to stay another year at the BayArena before accepting the opportunity to fill the void left by Carlo Ancelotti at the Bernabeu last May. 

By that stage, though, nobody at Liverpool was pining for the return of one of the classiest midfielders ever to ply his trade at Anfield. During a sensational debut season at Anfield, which featured a fantastic 4-0 rout of Alonso's Leverkusen in the Champions League, Slot had made succeeding a proper Kop icon like Klopp look easier than anyone could have possibly have imagined. Liverpool's 20th top-flight title was won with four games to spare and, two days after Alonso was formally unveiled as Madrid's new boss, Slot was named Premier League Manager of the Season.

So much has changed in the interim, though.

Less than eight months after Madrid hailed the return of "one of the best coaches in the world", they revealed that they had parted company with Alonso "by mutual agreement". There was nothing mutual about it, though. Alonso had been sacked due to player power - and his dismissal had been coming for some time. 

Vinicius Jr went public with his dissatisfaction with Ancelotti's successor during the first Clasico of the season, but other key figures within the Madrid dressing room were just as frustrated by the Spaniard's demands and demeanour, making his premature departure inevitable, as club president Florentino Perez has always attached more importance to players than coaches. 

In that sense, Alonso's reputation as one of the most exciting and innovative young coaches in the game today is unlikely to be unduly affected by his Madrid exit - and certainly not in the eyes of Liverpool fans, who adored him as a player and coveted him as a coach. 

Even when rumours of dressing-room unrest at Real first began to surface, there was talk of the 44-year-old being welcomed back at Anfield with open arms - primarily because Slot looked utterly incapable of arresting Liverpool's worst run of results since 1954. Indeed, the former Feyenoord coach was lucky that Alonso wasn't already available while the Reds were slumping to their ninth defeat in 12 games, against Nottingham Forest on November 22. 

Of course, the Reds' results have improved since then - but the performances have not.

The win over Barnsley extended Liverpool's undefeated streak to 11 games in all competitions. However, the Reds are still playing poorly, devoid of any real fluency or penetration in their play. Finding a way through or around deep-lying defences remains a real struggle - which is why they've drawn five of their last nine Premier League games.

Liverpool were rightly praised for picking up a point at the Emirates last week, particularly as they had dominated the majority of the second half away to the Premier League leaders. However, while the Reds saw plenty of the ball against Arsenal, they'd once again failed to do very much with it - which is why they failed to reduce the embarrassing 14-point gap between the two sides.

Consequently, Slot was "a bit surprised" by the positive reaction to the kind of display that had previously provoked nothing but negativity.

"When we have 60 or 70 per cent ball possession against other teams, people find it boring, but now it is a 'good performance'," Slot said during his post-match press conference in north London. "We hardly created a chance again, but this is who we are right now. We can dominate possession, we know how to do build-up, but we struggle, obviously, in a few things.

"Set-pieces are one of them, but finding the right pass and the right execution in the final third, that is something that is still not at the level of some other teams. And that's why we are working every single day to improve."

Liverpool did at least show more attacking threat on Monday - but only really because Barnsley began to believe they could actually turn the game in the second half, and thus left more space for superstar subs Wirtz and Ekitike to exploit in the closing stages. It also felt significant that the home side's breakthrough goal came not from an incisive passing move, but a speculative strike from distance.

To Slot's credit, he was once again honest enough to admit that Liverpool's general play had left an awful lot to be desired.

"I was happy with the goals we scored," the 47-year-old told TNT Sports. "They were nice goals. But I think it was a game that was tight for far too long because at 2-0 and then giving a goal away made it difficult until five-to-10 minutes before the end. So yeah, good goals but not enough chances from all the ball possession we had."

And the recurring nature of Liverpool's problems do not reflect well on the manager.

There are undeniably some grounds for optimism, mainly due to the new signings, nearly all of whom are starting to settle.

Wirtz may have made a mess of once chance against Barnsley, but his subsequent strike into the top corner means he's now netted three times in his last five appearances, while the sight of him and Ekitike creating goals for one another undeniably bodes well for the future. It's no exaggeration to say that the pair could end up becoming one of the most devastating duos in the Premier League.

Of course, another former Bundesliga star is also starting to find his feet at Anfield, with Liverpool now enjoying the benefits of having a fully-fit Frimpong racing up and down their right flank.

Perhaps most encouragingly of all, Milos Kerkez put in his best performance of the season up against Bukayo Saka last week, which should do wonders for the confidence of a player who looked completely out of his depth during the first few months of the season.

Still, while there are clear signs that the most recent arrivals are finally poised to make their presence properly felt at Anfield, Slot still has plenty of other problems to solve.

The individual form and fitness of key men such as Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Cody Gakpo remain a cause for concern, the most untimely season-ending injury suffered by Conor Bradley means we're likely to see Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones played out of position at right-back several more times this season, while it still feels as if Slot's relationship with Mohamed Salah is going to require further attention if the Egyptian is to get back to his best.

However, the biggest issue at the moment is the overall lack of coherence and consistency. As Slot has openly admitted, Liverpool are simply not producing complete performances this season, and there are two obvious reasons why: a disturbing lack of urgency and intensity, and set-piece shortcomings in both boxes.

Perhaps most worryingly of all, though, we've yet to see clear patterns of play this season, vivid illustrations of what exactly the manager is trying to do with his title-winning team. Slot says that while he's not changed his style, other teams have, by employing low blocks and long balls to get around Liverpool's pressing while at the same time nullifying their attacking threat.

An enormous amount of money was obviously spent on adding extra dimensions to Slot's side, to make them more unpredictable, and thus harder to stop, but, for the most part, they've just become harder to watch. These next few months are, thus, vitally important for the Dutchman, because, with the league gone, performances have become just as important as points from the fans' perspective.

As well as eyeing good cup runs, a famously patient set of supporters want to see evidence of evolution, proof that they will be in a position to reclaim their title next season. In such a scenario, they would accept more mixed results in the second half of the season. 

What they will not tolerate, though, is more boring football - especially not now that the most exciting possible replacement is back on the market.