Liverpool Fans Chant Xabi Alonso's Name After Humiliating 4-0 FA Cup Defeat

Erling Haaland's 11th hat-trick for Manchester City at an emptying Etihad told one story. The chants of "Xabi Alonso" from the Liverpool away end told quite another.

Saturday's 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat was more than a bad result for Arne Slot; it was a referendum. Thousands of Liverpool supporters had left the stadium well before the final whistle, and those who remained directed their frustration not just at the performance on the pitch but at the identity of the man they believe should replace the Dutchman in the dugout. Alonso, the former Liverpool midfielder who left Real Madrid earlier this year and is currently without a club, has become the name that summarises everything fans feel is missing from Slot's team.

Haaland was, as he so often is at the highest level, merciless. The Norwegian striker's hat-trick drove City into the FA Cup semi-finals and stripped bare a Liverpool side that, in the words of their own manager, simply quit fighting. "We missed the fighting spirit definitely in the ten minutes after half time," Slot said after the match, "and then afterwards it was just a game where both teams accepted it was 4-0." Mohamed Salah, reportedly making his last appearance at the Etihad as a Liverpool player, compounded the humiliation when James Trafford saved his penalty with the score already at four. Pep Guardiola, serving a touchline ban, watched from the stands as his side, who had also claimed the League Cup before the international break, dismantled the reigning champions.

The match statistics added a layer of cruelty. Liverpool registered 36 touches in City's penalty box compared to City's 21, yet lost by four goals. Sky Sports captured the contradiction with precision: "For a supposedly top team, they are bad in both boxes." Slot himself acknowledged the systemic failing that has haunted Liverpool all season: "The amount of goals we scored is far too low for the amount of chances we created."

In the Premier League, the numbers are equally troubling. Liverpool sit sixth with 45 points from 27 games, level with Chelsea and Manchester United but separated from the top four only by goal difference. Arsenal, top of the table with 61 points from 28 matches, are 16 points clear. In 2026 alone, Liverpool have won four, drawn four and lost three league games. The defeat followed a 2-1 Premier League loss to Brighton before the international break, making this the club's worst stretch since the pre-Jürgen Klopp era.

Despite the noise in the stands, Fenway Sports Group remain, in the assessment of The Times' Liverpool correspondent Paul Joyce, "steadfastly behind" Slot. FSG's internal view is that they want him to "emerge from the turbulence" and expect him to "reassert himself" once underlying issues are resolved. Reports out of Spain claiming a three-year deal with Alonso had already been agreed were dismissed by those close to the club as based on "false assumptions." Jamie Carragher, however, has warned that the Alonso speculation has become an "open secret" and now functions as a destabilising presence around the manager regardless of what the club says officially.

Slot has one immediate chance to change the narrative. Liverpool face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League quarter-final first leg imminently, and the head coach did not shy away from framing it as a lifeline. "It is not every season you play the quarter-final of the Champions League," he said. "We are really looking forward to playing against a very good side again, like today." Whether European football can offset a domestic season unravelling in real time is the central question hanging over Anfield. Just twelve months after Liverpool lifted their 20th league title in Slot's debut season, the question is no longer hypothetical.