Arne Slot did not bother with sugar-coating.
On the eve of Liverpool’s Champions League quarter-final first leg against Paris St-Germain, the Dutchman laid out the reality in blunt terms: if his side switch off in Paris as they did in Manchester, they will be torn apart again.
“If we have the 20 minutes we had at City tomorrow evening here, we will again concede four goals,” Slot warned in Paris. No caveats. No escape route.
A club reeling from a bruising
Liverpool arrive in the French capital still nursing the wounds of a 4-0 humiliation by Manchester City in the FA Cup, their 15th defeat of a disjointed season. City scored four times in a devastating 20-minute spell either side of half-time, a collapse that prompted captain Virgil van Dijk to question his own dressing room.
“You shouldn’t give up and that’s maybe, at a certain point, what happened,” Van Dijk said after the game, a stinging accusation from a player not known for public rebukes.
Slot pushed back slightly on the idea that his players downed tools, but he did not dismiss his captain’s anger.
“I didn’t see players giving up, but I also think it is good from a captain that he has a strong and firm reaction,” he said. “This year we have been quite experienced in terms of negativity. This was a big one because it was a [FA Cup] quarter-final. It was a big loss against our rivals.”
The message was clear: he will defend his squad, but not shield them from the truth.
From champions to chasers
Twelve months ago Liverpool were parading a Premier League trophy, basking in the glow of a title won under Slot at the first attempt. The mood now could hardly be more different.
This April is about survival, not celebration. The club’s season hangs in the balance, with Champions League qualification still uncertain and the margin for error shrinking by the week.
Slot’s task is stark. He must drag Liverpool back into next season’s Champions League either by winning this one or by hauling them over the line in the Premier League. For a manager who arrived to a fanfare, the pressure has arrived quickly and with force.
He knows it. The players know it. And in Paris, there is absolutely no hiding place.
Ninety minutes or nothing
Slot’s diagnosis of what must change against PSG is simple: intensity, from first whistle to last. Not in bursts, not in patches. For 90 minutes.
“So it is a challenge for us to be from the first to the last second at the level we were at in the first 35 minutes [against City],” he said.
Those opening 35 minutes at the Etihad offered a glimpse of what Liverpool can still be: aggressive, organised, competitive with the very best. What followed was the nightmare version — loose, passive, overwhelmed.
Against the European champions, that sort of split personality will be punished ruthlessly. Slot knows that if his side drift through even a small spell in Paris, the tie could be effectively over before Anfield even gets its say.
Belief under scrutiny
With criticism swirling and questions being asked about whether the squad is still fully behind the manager, one of Slot’s key creative forces stepped forward in support.
“Yes, of course we are believing in the manager,” said Germany playmaker Florian Wirtz. “The team should believe in the manager because they won the league last season, we had a lot of good games this season.
“We wanted it to be better but we still have things to play for.”
It was a calm, measured defence, grounded not in sentiment but in recent history. This is largely the same group that stormed to the title last year. The same coach, the same core, suddenly staring at the possibility of a season that unravels in April.
Leaning on Liverpool’s DNA
Asked how he copes with the strain and what his players must do to salvage the campaign, Slot reached for the club’s own story.
“The answer is already in the history of Liverpool,” he said. “This group has shown many times that they have comeback after setbacks and this club has shown it many many times over the years.
“My team has shown many times in big games that we are able to compete with the best teams in Europe.”
Liverpool’s mythology is built on exactly these nights: backs to the wall, questions swirling, a season on the line in a hostile stadium. Slot is banking on that muscle memory, that ingrained refusal to accept the script.
But history does not win duels, track runners or close passing lanes. The players will.
On Wednesday in Paris, there is no room for another 20-minute blackout. Against PSG, that sort of lapse does not just cost a match. It can cost a season.
