Liverpool lost again, and while that’s frustrating for fans, it’s also an interesting learning moment for those of us who work in companies and organisations. Because what happens now, the wave of instant, often irrational criticism from people on the sidelines, is exactly what we also see in management and leadership contexts.

Everyone suddenly has an opinion, everyone knows it better, and the person in charge becomes either a hero or a lunatic, depending on the result of the day. This makes the reaction to the manager Arne Slot a perfect example of how people can behave when things get tough.

I’m looking at the comments on social media and I’m amazed at how people, just six months ago, were turning Slot into a god, and now they’re calling him an uninvolved lunatic. People even travelled to his birthplace on pilgrimages last season. It was one big hallelujah, also in the media. Everyone praised him, especially for supposedly being the man who would finally win a league title with a team that couldn’t do it anymore under Jurgen Klopp. Everybody, really everybody , was full of admiration.

And now?
Now he’s suddenly “a complete disaster” who isn’t competent anymore? Do people really think a manager is either a god or a madman? Yes, they do, but that’s not how it works. We also have to look at the players. They’re not scoring for instance. That’s a major problem, because if they score matches will go completely different. Chances that were goals last year are now being missed. Also because opponents are defending sometimes with 9 players. 

Maybe the whole issue is that Slot wants to press too high with players like Isak, Gakpo and Ekitike. You need more space in the opponent’s half for that. This is the vulnerability of Dutch total football, also preached by Pep Guardiola, who was influenced by Cruyff who was shaped in the Eredivisie. In my view, Liverpool should drop 20 metres deeper to create more space for the frontline and more calmness in defence.

Even this Eredivisie is mentioned in some cynical comments. It should be different from the Premier League, which it is. But you know why? Because the extreme amounts of money in other countries are leading to the loss of the best Eredivisie players. In spite of this Arne Slot was able to reach a Conference Cup final with Feyenoord and a quarter final in the Europe League. While the best Dutch players were active in the Bundesliga, Premier League and Spanish and Italian Liga's, Slot was succesfull with players of a lower level. 

Back to Liverpool.  I also see that the players have less energy than last year. Why is that? That is the challenge for Slot and his players. Too many games in a year? That cannot be the reason. We may expect players of this level that they are able to withstand this. Maybe the death of one their teammates still has influence? Maybe the leaving of Diaz, Nunez and Trent was a little too much. Everybody is talking about the money Liverpool spent on new players, but they earned money with the selling of others, who wanted to leave for other opportunities. 

Nevertheless, I have my own criticism of Liverpool. I’m irritated that they lose almost every duel and that their big players are unable to score. And that cannot continue. Slot knows he will have to leave if things don’t improve quickly. But that doesn’t suddenly make him a bad coach.

As Liverpool fans, we should support both our players and our coach — a far better attitude than gossiping about the man on social media, where he can’t defend himself. In football you win some and you lose some. And if you lose too much as a coach, you know you might be sacked in the morning. But that still doesn’t justify the nonsense some fans are shouting, stuck in nostalgia for the Klopp era.

Klopp left. Now it’s time for a new chapter. Whether this will become the Slot era… that’s the question. It depends on the results. If those don’t come, the club will intervene. And this is a parallel with that what happens in organisations.