Is Arne Slot’s Time Up? Winners, Losers After Man Metropolis’s FA Cup Rout of Liverpool

[ad_1]

Pep Guardiola insisted final month that Actual Madrid weren't his greatest rivals throughout his time at Manchester Metropolis, as a substitute giving that individual honor to Liverpool. He did at the least make clear that he meant Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool, which is simply as properly after Arne Slot's Reds didn't trigger Guardiola any stress whereas he watched his facet run out 4-0 winners in Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final from the consolation of his seat within the stands.

Sat subsequent to his daughter Maria, Guardiola was an animated determine throughout a fair first half. However as soon as Erling Haaland scored the primary aim of his eventual hat-trick, Guardiola might simply sit again and benefit from the view of his facet reserving their place within the semi-finals for the ninth time in his decade-long reign in Manchester.

However there was no enjoyable for his counterpart Slot, who should have felt a deep sense of torment as his facet conceded 4 occasions within the house of 19 minutes to crash out of the cup. The Dutch coach was the topic of April Fools Day jokes earlier within the week, however watching his facet carry out in Manchester, with Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk among the many most important culprits, it was tempting to assume that essentially the most silly factor for Liverpool's hierarchy to do could be to maintain Slot in cost subsequent season.

Certainly, there's a rising case to make a change proper now, particularly with Paris Saint-Germain mendacity in wait as their opponents within the Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday.

GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from the Etihad Stadium.

WINNER: Erling Haaland Haaland had solely scored twice in his eight video games since he final confronted Liverpool in February, however he ended his barren spell in emphatic trend along with his most prolific outing in opposition to the Reds to this point. It capped an unbelievable run of matches this season in opposition to Metropolis's greatest rivals of the final decade, with Haaland having additionally scored within the 3-0 rout of Slot's facet in November earlier than netting his first aim at Anfield within the frantic comeback of two months again.

Haaland turned the primary participant to attain 5 targets in opposition to Liverpool in a single season since Matt Le Tissier in 1993-94, six years earlier than the Norwegian was born. Haaland had been quiet earlier than Metropolis earned the penalty, however he took his spot-kick with no trace of nerves, in complete distinction to how Salah would bungle his effort from 12 yards later within the recreation.

From then on, Haaland was in demolition mode. He bullied Ibrahima Konate within the air to move in his second in first-half stoppage time after which made no mistake from Nico O'Reilly's lay-off after the break, finishing his hat-trick with an effort that bounced in by way of the crossbar.

LOSER: Mohamed Salah An off-the-cuff observer with no information of this fixture would have discovered it laborious to consider that Salah had scored 13 occasions and arrange eight targets in his profession in opposition to Metropolis. Somewhat, he seemed a shadow of his former self from begin to end.

Salah shrunk in confidence early within the recreation after Abdukodir Khusanov chased him down and compelled the Egyptian star into miscuing his shot out for a throw-in. Salah missed two extra possibilities within the second half - however then got here the actual low level, when his half-hearted penalty was saved out by James Trafford.

TNT Sports activities' commentators speculated that Arne Slot opted in opposition to taking Salah off so quickly after the penalty miss as a result of he didn't need him to be humiliated by Metropolis followers when he left the pitch. He was in the end put out of his distress 10 minutes later, bringing a tragic, unhappy finish to Salah's profession in a fixture that he dominated over the past decade, however won't ever grace once more.

This was an incredible advert for Metropolis's recruitment workforce as signings from the 2 earlier switch home windows made their mark.

Rayan Cherki may need appeared like a big gamble when Metropolis unveiled him as their successor to Kevin De Bruyne in June after dropping out on Florian Wirtz to Liverpool. Metropolis followers on-line vented their fury on the membership not signing Wirtz, however new sporting director Hugo Viana's resolution to swerve a £100 million-plus bonuses transfer for the Germany playmaker in favour of bagging Cherki for simply £34m now seems to be like a stroke of genius. The Frenchman labored in tandem on Saturday with Antoine Semenyo, who arrived seven months later and for nearly double the value however who's proving an equally astute signing.

Cherki fed Semenyo for the cross that led to Haaland's second aim, and their telepathic understanding was on show once more within the second half when Ghana worldwide Semenyo latched onto one other cross from the previous Lyon star to chip within the third aim. Semenyo now has a shocking eight targets and two assists in lower than three months with Metropolis, whereas Cherki has 10 targets and 11 assists for the season.

Metropolis received two good playmakers for lower than the value of 1, with Wirtz having returned solely six targets and 5 assists in all competitions in a purple shirt up to now.

LOSER: Virgil van Dijk If Van Dijk rolled again the years final season to steer Liverpool to the title, his age has properly and really caught up with him this time period.

The 34-year-old clumsily tripped Nico O'Reilly to provide away the penalty which modified the tide of the sport. It was the fourth penalty Van Dijk has conceded this season, as many as in his earlier eight years with Liverpool. He was then caught out each by Cherki's completely weighted cross and by the tempo of Semenyo as Metropolis scored once more early within the second half, earlier than being left for lifeless by Haaland's motion for the hosts' fourt.

Like Salah, Van Dijk signed a brand new Liverpool contract final summer time to tie him to the membership till 2027, however given how off the tempo he seemed right here, and has all season, some followers can be encouraging him to observe the Egyptian's lead and in addition finish his lengthy and glittering profession with the Reds one yr early.

WINNER: James Trafford Trafford was understandably upset when he realized that Metropolis had signed Gianluigi Donnarumma and that he was not going to be No.1 in spite of everything following his return to his boyhood membership from Burnley final summer time. However being Metropolis's cup goalkeeper is arguably extra rewarding than being the No.1 at most Premier League golf equipment, and Trafford now has one other Wembley journey to sit up for after his heroics within the Carabao Cup ultimate final month.

Trafford won't have the identical gigantic presence as Donnarumma, however he had the measure of Salah right here, and his penalty save from the Egyptian added to his assortment of spot-kick heroics, which incorporates saving two in a single recreation for Burnley final season in opposition to Sunderland and maintaining out a kick within the ultimate minute of the Beneath-21 European Championship ultimate in 2023.

Trafford is inside his rights to seek for a brand new membership subsequent season the place he can play each week, however he might nonetheless look again on his doubtless sole season again at Metropolis very fondly, with two extra journeys to Wembley and one other piece of silverware nonetheless inside his grasp.

LOSER: Arne Slot It has lengthy been felt, as Liverpool have lurched from one disastrous consequence to the subsequent, that the one factor maintaining Slot within the Anfield hotseat is Xabi Alonso's insistence on taking a break earlier than making his subsequent transfer in administration. Alonso's return to Liverpool as supervisor has felt like a query of 'when' fairly than 'if' ever since he proved to be simply as proficient a coach as he was a midfielder by guiding Bayer Leverkusen to their first Bundesliga title whereas remaining unbeaten in 2024.

As Jamie Carragher identified in his Each day Telegraph column on Saturday, there are many parallels between the present state of affairs and when Liverpool have been courting Jurgen Klopp in 2015 whereas Brendan Rodgers was nonetheless in cost. To make issues worse for Slot, the emphatic consequence on the Etihad Stadium clocked up an undesirable 15 defeats for Liverpool in a single season for the primary time since Rodgers' ultimate marketing campaign on Merseyside.

If Liverpool's homeowners have been as ruthless as Bayern Munich, who sacked Julian Nagelsmann within the March worldwide break in 2023 and changed him with Thomas Tuchel, they'd make the change now. It appears, although, that they're simply ready to make a clean transition in the summertime. It signifies that Liverpool are going to endure extra resounding defeats from now till the top of the marketing campaign, with their ache extremely prone to proceed on Wednesday within the French capital.