FSG face tough call over Slot as Liverpool fan unrest grows

Fenway Sports Group now faces a classic ownership test: whether to back Arne Slot through a brutal dip in form or act before Liverpool’s unrest hardens into a wider breakdown in confidence. The question has arrived only a year after Slot delivered the Premier League title in his first season, making the shift in mood at Anfield all the more stark.

Liverpool’s title was sealed on 27 April 2025 with a 5-1 home win over Tottenham Hotspur, a result that gave the club its second Premier League crown and 20th English league title overall. That achievement should have bought Slot time. Instead, the numbers since then have put his position under relentless scrutiny, with reports this spring putting Liverpool on 19 defeats in all competitions, joint-most in a single season for the club this century.

The most visible sign of the turn came at Anfield on 10 May 2026, when supporters booed Slot after he substituted teenager Rio Ngumoha during the 1-1 draw with Chelsea. For a manager who had been hailed as the successor to Liverpool’s recent title-winning cycle, the reaction cut straight to the relationship between the coach, the crowd and the club’s hierarchy. It was no longer just a poor run of results; it was a public challenge to authority.

Danny Murphy told BBC Sport that the situation was a conundrum and said he expected Slot to be gone within months. That view sits alongside the wider sense of unease around Liverpool, where the scale of the slump has pushed debate beyond form and into governance. The central issue for FSG is whether the current slide reflects a temporary collapse in performance or a deeper failure that demands intervention before next season.

Liverpool’s owners have faced this choice before. FSG backed Brendan Rodgers before sacking him in October 2015, a precedent that now hangs over any decision on Slot. Reports earlier in May said the group was still backing him for next season, despite poor form and uncertainty over Champions League qualification. But if the dissent keeps growing, the owners will have to decide whether loyalty to a title-winning manager is prudence or delay.