Liverpool return for Jurgen Klopp ruled out as stance on under pressure Arne Slot revealed

Nov 27, 2025 - 14:30

talkSPORT understands talk of Jurgen Klopp returning to Anfield are wide of the mark as Liverpool continue to back Arne Slot.

The Dutchman‘s reign hit a new low on Wednesday night, as the Reds were thumped 4-1 at home by PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League.

Arne Slot looked speechless as his Liverpool side suffered a third straight defeat in all competitions

This saw the Premier League champions slump to a ninth defeat in 12 games – which is the club’s worst run of form for more than 70 years.

Liverpool were booed off by the Anfield faithful at full-time, after losing by a three-goal margin for the third straight game.

The manner of defeat raises serious questions over the future of Slot, who has struggled since guiding the club to the Premier League title in his debut season, despite spending £450million on new players.

With results only getting worse, this has sparked early speculation as to who could replace Slot in the dugout, should Liverpool opt for a change in management.

Among the names being floated around is predecessor Klopp, who guided the club to eight trophies in a glittering nine-year spell.

Since standing down at Anfield in 2024, the German has stayed away from coaching, and is now Red Bull’s Head of Global Soccer.

But this hasn’t stopped talk of a spectacular return to the club, with Klopp currently the bookmakers’ second favourite to be the next Liverpool manager, behind Real Madrid boss Xabi Alonso.

Fans even called into talkSPORT on Thursday calling for the Premier League and Champions League winner to return to Anfield.

Sticking with Slot

While Klopp remains a revered figure on Merseyside, talkSPORT’s chief football correspondent Alex Crook has revealed that Slot maintains the club’s backing for now.

Crook said: “The information I have is that the Liverpool hierarchy are still behind Arne Slot.

“They knew that this was going to be a difficult season for a plethora of reasons. It’s always hard to integrate new players.

Jurgen Klopp restored Liverpool to an English football powerhouse during his tenure[/caption]

Liverpool after losing to PSV Eindhoven.

Liverpool’s key performers from last season have underperformed this term, including Golden Boot winner Mohamed Salah[/caption]

Crook went on to detail the challenges that Slot has had to navigate this season, namely the continued impact of the death of Diogo Jota on the Liverpool squad.

He explained: “There will have been players in that dressing room who won the league last year that obviously would have bristled at players coming in to take their places.

“That’s before you factor in the Diogo Jota situation and I don’t think that’s been highlighted enough.

“There is a group of players in that dressing room who are still grieving for their teammate.

“There are other players who have been added to the dressing room who maybe have found that a difficult environment.

“You don’t become a bad manager overnight. We all lauded Arne Slot for what he did last season. Basically, with Jurgen Klopp’s team, he made subtle tweaks, made them more compact, more difficult to play against and won the league at a canter.”

It was a different story entirely for Slot last season, who guided Liverpool to a 20th English title

No ‘immediate threat’ to Slot

While Crook stressed that Slot’s position is not at-risk for now, he was quick to highlight the crucial run of fixtures to come for Liverpool.

Starting with their away trip to West Ham on Saturday, the Reds will play three games in the space of seven days, with a midweek clash against Sunderland and a clash with Leeds at Elland Road to follow.

Crook said: “I don’t think his position is under immediate threat. Having said that, there are some key games ahead, aren’t there?

“They go to West Ham this weekend. It’s a three-game week in the Premier League. Three games on paper, you would have expected Liverpool at the start of the season to win. I do think they need to pick up some results.”

And Crook suggested that Slot may need to make some big calls ahead of the must-win games, with senior players like Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk being slated for their recent performances.

He added: “I do think maybe some difficult decisions need to be made in terms of those players who served Liverpool so well.

Virgil van Dijk gave away a penalty in the first 10 minutes of Liverpool’s defeat to PSV

“Mo Salah is not performing. Virgil van Dijk suddenly is making mistakes.

“The issue they’ve got when it comes to Van Dijk, they’re not blessed with options at the centre of defence. But I do think that the manager needs to make some big calls in terms of personnel.”

What has Jurgen Klopp said about returning to Liverpool?

While Crook poured cold water over a potential Liverpool return for Klopp in the immediate future, the German coach has appeared to leave the door open to this himself.

Appearing on the Diary of a CEO podcast in October, Klopp was asked whether he could be back in the Anfield dugout in the future.

To this, he replied: “I said I will never coach a different team in England.

“So that means if [Klopp returns], then it’s Liverpool, so yeah, theoretically it’s possible.”

Klopp guided Liverpool to Premier League and Champions League glory during his nine years on Merseyside

However, Klopp then appeared to cast doubt over his managerial future altogether, as he went on to say: “If I had to make the decision today, I won’t coach again, but thank God I don’t have to do that. I can just see what the future brings.

“But now I’m involved in a project that I really love, I love the people that I’m working together with, the clubs that I’m responsible for and the countries the clubs are in, so I like what I am doing right now.

“And in my mind, only if I focused 100 per cent on it, I can do it really good, and that’s what I always want to do.”