Liverpool's top target to replace Arne Slot revealed as Reds consider asking Jurgen Klopp to make sensational return on interim basis amid dreadful run of results

With Liverpool's heavy 4-1 defeat at home to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League on Wednesday, they have now lost nine of their last 12 games in all competitions - a 71-year low. The former Feyenoord manager said that with the players they have, which include spending more than £400 million ($528m) on transfers this summer, this run "cannot continue". However, club legend Jamie Carragher thinks Slot may have just a week to save his job, with the former defender saying the games against West Ham, Sunderland, and Leeds United over the next week or so will decide his fate.

He wrote in The Telegraph: "Arne Slot has a week to save his job. It is hard to believe that sentence is being written, but Liverpool’s next three games are against West Ham United, Sunderland and Leeds United. Anything fewer than seven points will make an already unacceptable situation untenable. No matter how much goodwill the manager has, Liverpool Football Club cannot sustain the drop in standards witnessed over the past three months. No one knows better than me how much that reality will be hurting everyone connected with my old club. Liverpool do not willingly sack coaches, especially those that bring great success."

According to The Sun, Liverpool are considering reaching out to Klopp over possibly managing the defending English champions until the end of the season if Slot cannot turn the club's fortunes around. The German, who is now Global Head of Soccer for Red Bull, would be seen as a short-term option, with Paris Saint-Germain manager Luis Enrique their top long-term target. The report adds that conversations have taken place among Liverpool executives over worries Slot has 'lost the dressing room', with the board potentially waiting until the new year to see if he can arrest the club's slide. This comes shortly after German journalist Michael Reif claimed Liverpool aren't just in a "mess", but that they have been "practically burned to the ground", while warning that Slot should "watch out" over a potential Klopp return.

After the PSV drubbing, Slot said he spoke with the club's owners about his Liverpool future. The Dutchman has vowed to fight on, saying his job is safe for now. 

He told reporters on Thursday: "We've had the same conversations that we've had since I got here. We fight on. We try to improve, but the conversations have been the same as they have been for the last one and a half years."

When pressed on what he can change to arrest the dreadful run of results, Slot added: "That's not so easy to say. It's normal to reflect on a game with decisions you have made. Maybe you do it a little bit more if you lose. In the end, it's about doing what this club is about. Keep fighting no matter how difficult it is I would be nice if we rewards ourselves in he moments we play well. People are focused on he parts we don't play well but there are large parts where we do play well."

Liverpool's dire run of results has seen them drop to 12th in the Premier League, just a matter of months after they topped the division. Now they are a whopping 11 points behind league leaders Arsenal after 12 games and going by their current form, things could get even worse. For instance, Sunday's trip to West Ham looks quite daunting now, especially as the Hammers have picked up seven points from their last three games. Moreover, the Reds have lost six of their last seven league matches but fixtures against West Ham, Sunderland, and relegation-threatened Leeds are as good an opportunity as any to turn their fortunes around.