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The Dutch coach earned considerable goodwill last season after helping Liverpool recover from their Champions League exit at the hands of PSG, but tonight’s clash could tell a very different story.

It’s March 5, 2025, and Liverpool have just secured a 1-0 win at PSG’s home ground in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 encounter.

Harvey Elliot’s 87th-minute strike at the Parc des Princes sealed the victory for the Reds, though the underlying match statistics painted a starkly contrasting picture of the contest.

PSG, who would go on to win the tournament, registered a massive 27 shots compared to Liverpool’s two. Alisson was the standout performer, making nine saves, preventing 2.26 expected goals, and earning the Man of the Match award as Liverpool escaped France with a narrow win.

Fast forward a little over a year, and the glory days of Arne Slot’s Premier League-winning Liverpool seem like a distant memory.

Currently sitting fifth in the Premier League table, already knocked out of the Carabao Cup after a 3-0 home defeat to Crystal Palace, and humiliated in a 4-0 FA Cup exit to Manchester City last weekend, Liverpool’s only remaining shot at silverware lies in the Champions League. To keep that hope alive, they must overcome the same PSG side that arguably marked the beginning of the decline under Slot last season.

The Dutchman’s long farewell effectively began after that Round of 16 second leg, where PSG levelled the tie with a 1-0 victory and went on to win on penalties. Following a faltering conclusion to their league-winning campaign, Slot now finds himself close to leading Liverpool to their most defeats in a single season this century — already at 16, with the record standing at 19 from the 2004-05 and 2009-10 seasons. Ironically, the latter team went on to lift the Champions League trophy.

Ask Liverpool fans worldwide, and most would agree that those 16 losses still don’t fully capture the frustration they’ve endured under Slot this term.

Last season’s Carabao Cup final loss to Newcastle and the Champions League exit to PSG were easier to overlook, given that Liverpool were laser-focused on clinching their first Premier League title in front of home supporters. But the recent FA Cup defeat to Manchester City — Slot’s third loss to Pep Guardiola’s side this season by a combined 9-1 scoreline — will likely go down as one of his lowest moments, especially as it came in the one competition where Liverpool stood a realistic chance of success.

This wasn’t about managing priorities; it was a collapse. Arne Slot appears to have lost not only the dressing room, with senior players like Mohamed Salah and Alexis Mac Allister voicing their discontent, but also a large section of the fanbase.

The travelling Liverpool supporters made their feelings clear after that FA Cup drubbing, chanting Xabi Alonso’s name — one of FourFourTwo’s tipped candidates to replace Slot — as they departed en masse following City’s fourth goal in what used to be a fiercely contested rivalry but now seems painfully one-sided.

With each defeat, it becomes increasingly apparent that Liverpool’s Premier League triumph last season may have owed more to the brilliance of Mohamed Salah than to the tactical acumen of Slot. The potential departure of a club legend just seven months into a two-year contract extension raises serious questions: how much of the winning mentality instilled under Jurgen Klopp has been eroded during Slot’s tenure?

Throughout this turbulent campaign, Slot and the Liverpool hierarchy have faced accusations of publicly criticising their own players, and the manager did little to dispel that perception with his recent comments about goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.

During his pre-match press conference ahead of the PSG tie, Slot remarked: “You need a good goalkeeper, but for 35 minutes at the Etihad, we didn’t need one. I was hoping he’d save a few.”

If his tactical decisions weren’t problematic enough, such man-management remarks are likely to deepen concerns among Liverpool’s owners, FSG.

Should Slot remain in charge, the challenge of restoring the culture and resilience that Klopp built will become even more daunting. A loss to PSG tonight could well mark the final chapter of his reign.

According to Paul Joyce, Northern football correspondent and Liverpool specialist for The Times, a win against PSG could still expose an underlying attitude issue within the squad — one that may have been exacerbated by the manager himself.

It’s a cruel twist of fate that the fixture which signalled the start of Arne Slot’s slow farewell might also deliver its abrupt and decisive conclusion tonight. And perhaps most telling of all — many Liverpool fans might actually welcome it.