Clock is ticking for Arne Slot: Liverpool run-in leaves top-five hopes and coach's job hanging by a thread

Gravenberch acknowledged that Liverpool simply "have to start winning games" - but that's something the Reds have struggled to do all season long, and particularly since the turn of the year.

On paper, Slot's side have a soft set of fixtures leading up to the March international break, against Sunderland (away), Nottingham Forest (a), West Ham (home), Wolves (a), Tottenham (h) and Brighton (a). Newly-promoted Sunderland are the highest-placed of those six sides in mid-table, so the bare-minimum target simply has to be 14 points from the next six matches, because four wins and two draws would put Liverpool on 53 points after 29 rounds - and right back in the top-five fight ahead of their final seven fixtures, which includes three consecutive, potentially decisive head-to-heads against Manchester United (a), Chelsea (h) and Aston Villa (a) in May.

Sixty-six points was enough to secure fifth in each of the past two Premier League seasons (although Newcastle only snuck into the Champions League on goal difference last year), meaning the Reds require at least 27 points from the remaining 39 available - and that wouldn't normally be too tall of an order for a title-winning team.

However, the problem is that while United and Chelsea have found some form since sacking their respective coaches just over a month ago, Liverpool have yet to be vindicated for sticking with Slot.

Liverpool had a golden opportunity to get their season back on track after the last international break, starting with the visit of relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest on November 22, and yet Slot's side capitulated after conceding the opening goal (from a set-piece obviously) in a humiliating 3-0 defeat.

The Reds didn't lose another game for two months, but it was the most unconvincing undefeated streak in Premier League history, with the titleholders drawing six of their 10 matches between November 30 and January 17. The only positive point was picked up at the Emirates Stadium, while even three of their four victories, against Brighton, Spurs and Wolves, were painfully unimpressive.

It was, thus, a little jarring to hear Slot talking about improvement both after the City game and before Wednesday's trip to Sunderland, given Liverpool have managed to win only one of their seven league games in 2026. It's not as if they've had an especially rough run of fixtures either, with the Merseysiders taking just three points from games against Leeds, Fulham, Burnley and Bournemouth.

There's very little real reason, then, to believe that Liverpool are suddenly going to start putting low-block sides to the sword - and especially not Sunderland, who haven't lost a single home game so far this season.

Obviously, the productive partnership Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz are forming is a legitimate reason for optimism, at least in terms of the future, but the problem is that Mohamed Salah is presently living off past glories. After inspiring Liverpool to just their second Premier League title with a season for the ages, Salah has suffered a shocking slump in form in front of goal that has robbed Slot's side of its most effective attacking weapon.

From the outside looking in, it's hard to know for sure who is to blame for the fact that the 33-year-old has just four goals in 17 league games (his worst tally at this stage of a season since his time in Serie A more than a decade ago) - because he didn't become an average player overnight. Age catches up with all players eventually but the football didn't suddenly leave him at the end of last season. 

Salah infamously argued that he was being scapegoated when he was taken out of the team in November, while Slot could point to the fact that the Egyptian was no longer putting up the kind of numbers required to justify last season's ingenious reduction in his defensive duties.

All we know for sure is that Slot desperately needs to figure out how to get Salah back playing at something resembling his best because Liverpool do not have another thirty-goal-a-season-player in their squad right now.

Ekitike may be doing better than expected, while Wirtz has increased his output in recent weeks, but aside from maybe Dominik Szoboszlai and his set-pieces, nobody else is helping to pick up the slack, resulting in the Reds losing or drawing so many of the close games that Salah settled last season.

Another consequence of Salah's struggles is Luis Diaz is being missed more than anyone could have imagined, with Cody Gakpo having failed miserably to fill the void left by the Colombian.

Liverpool's hand was undoubtedly forced when it came to selling Diaz. The winger wanted out long before he was finally allowed to join Bayern Munich - and not even the starring role he played in a record-equalling 20th title triumph was enough to change his mind. Richard Hughes & Co., therefore, felt that €75 million (£65m/$89m) was decent money for a wantaway 28-year-old (as he was at the time) - and with a significant degree of justification.

The Reds also had the utmost faith in Gakpo to continue his fine form (18 goals in all competitions) after being moved into his preferred position on the left wing by Slot last season. Unfortunately, the Dutchman is enduring an even more dramatic dip in form than many of his team-mates and has, thus, become something of a lightning rod for the fans' frustration due to his infuriating habit of continually cutting inside onto his right foot - to little effect.

In that context, Liverpool's decision-makers really could have done without Diaz hitting a hat-trick for Bayern Munich on the very same evening that Gakpo was once again driving Anfield demented with another dreadfully ineffective display against City.

Gakpo is also being used as a stick with which to beat Slot for continuing to pick his out-of-form compatriot, but the coach would argue that he doesn't really have a choice, given Federico Chiesa has failed to make the most of the few starts he's been afforded (although whose fault is that?!) and Rio Ngumoha is still only 17.

There's certainly a very strong argument to be made that Slot's squad is short in several areas, which seems strange after an unprecedented summer spending spree - and yet was glaringly obvious on Sunday.

Slot had such little faith in his subs that he only brought Curtis Jones on with six minutes remaining, before throwing on Chiesa after going 2-1 down in injury time. Pep Guardiola, though, had such an embarrassment of riches to choose from that he was able to start two players that Liverpool could - and indeed should - have signed, in Marc Guehi and Antoine Semenyo, bring on Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Rayan Cherki, and, most significantly of all, leave Phil Foden, Tijjani Reijnders and Nico Gonzalez on the bench for the entirety of the game.

Slot can only dream of such depth, with Liverpool rather ridiculously set to field another midfielder at right-back against Sunderland - most likely Jones - due to Szoboszlai's one-match ban for his late dismissal against City and the fact that the manager clearly doesn't rate poor Calvin Ramsay whatsoever.

Of course, losing both Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong to injury at the same could be considered unfortunate and Slot has talked a lot about Liverpool's lack of luck, but the Irishman's inability to stay fit has been common knowledge for some time - and the same goes for Joe Gomez, who seems incapable of playing more than a couple of games every few months.

The Reds' recruitment team, thus, has an awful lot to answer for, because despite spending nearly half a billion pounds last summer, the current squad is not sufficiently equipped to finish the league campaign with a flourish while at the same time going deep in either the FA Cup or the Champions League - and no amount of upbeat round-table discussions with Slot, Hughes and Billy Hogan are going to convince the fans otherwise. Indeed, Slot effectively conceded while speaking to the press on Tuesday that Liverpool cannot cope with playing twice a week.

Jamie Carragher argued amid the fallout from Sunday's last-gasp loss, which came after a week's rest, that the only way Liverpool can make this season "special" is by winning a seventh European Cup, and there's no denying that Slot's side looks more suited to continental competition than the punishing Premier League. However, the Reds' issues aren't just physical; they're also clearly psychological. The one-time mentality monsters are now worryingly weak-willed, prone to collapse when the pressure really ramps up - as illustrated by the fact that they've already equalled the record for most injury-time winners conceded in a single Premier League season (four).

Given there are still 13 games to go, one certainly wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if the Reds were to take outright possession of that most unwanted of records. As Slot confessed, Liverpool have now got to the stage where they almost expect to lose in the last minute - which is both a sad and concerning state of affairs.

"The amount of times we have conceded late goals in extra time is far more than usual, is it bad luck or are we to blame?" the former Feyenoord coach wondered. "I have tried many different things, I have made defensive substitutions and the ball went in and I kept playing the same players and the ball went in, so we have tried a lot. I can say we haven't been lucky, that is definitely true. Is it then unlucky or part of who we are? That is something we can find out in the upcoming three to four months."

Essentially, Liverpool are losing faith in themselves, unsure of who they are anymore, and this ill-timed identity crisis could cost them Champions League football - which Slot conceded on Tuesday would be unacceptable.

Granted, their main top-five rivals are far from flawless, as Tuesday night's results underlined. Still, both United and Chelsea remain undefeated under their new coaches and while Unai Emery's injury-ravaged Villa have gone from eyeing a surprise title triumph to looking nervously over their shoulders, they are eight points ahead of Liverpool - which presently looks like an unbridgeable gap for a team averaging 1.52 points per game this season and, thus, on track to finish with just 59 points.

The very real fear for the Anfield faithful, then, is that if the Reds don't suddenly rediscover last season's self-belief over the next six weeks, they'll be so far behind Villa, United and Chelsea by the time May rolls around that the head-to-heads will be inconsequential.

There really is no longer any real room for error, then. "We have to be close to perfection," Slot acknowledged on the eve of the Sunderland game. But that looks unlikely when one considers that even the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker are now making incredibly costly errors in defence. Of course, the coach can hardly be held accountable for individual mistakes, but while he insists that Liverpool's overall performances have improved, their results have not and, as he admitted himself, the league table never lies.

"It's always the most important reflection of where you are," Slot said on Sunday, and where Liverpool are right now is in big trouble. Champions League qualification is very much on the line - along with the manager's job.