Arne Slot reality-check confirms Liverpool might be doomed

After winning against West Ham, the fans were given hope. After 90 minutes against Sunderland, that glimmer of hope was extinguished and then some, in truly extraordinary fashion.

Results matter because Liverpool desperately need points on the board to keep Arne Slot in his job, but the lack of sustainable performance levels is causing no end of grief for the Dutchman's hopes.

Playing a newly-promoted team often comes with certain cliches, but Sunderland have banished all of them this season, coming to Anfield comfortably in the top half of the table with 22 points won.

A gritty and purposeful display caused havoc with the low-on-confidence Reds and what the fans were treated to was incredibly troubling. The pressure on Slot was high, now it's higher than ever.

'Blueprint for success' ABANDONED in 45 minutes

Playing with four 'real' defenders as Slot called his back-line of Andy Robertson or Milos Kerkez, Virgil Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez, stopped after 65 minutes with Curtis Jones coming on as a make-shift full-back - a call enforced by Calvin Ramsay being left out of the squad.

LFC x adidas

Shop the home range today!

LFC x adidas

Shop the goalkeeper range today

LFC x adidas Third Kit

Shop the third kit range today!

And the plan of not using a right-winger at all was brushed aside earlier than that, with Mohamed Salah coming on for Cody Gakpo at half-time. The brand new system was boycotted in an instant.

Now, let's be clear, Liverpool did look better in the second half compared to their dismal first-half efforts, but it's what Slot's tactical choices represent - a coach visibly confused by his own team.

What's more problematic than that reality, is the fact that Slot admitted his own confusion to the fans last week, when he spoke to TNT Sports and said: "I'm also, like so many others, almost confused.

"How is this possible, with so much quality available, that I cannot find a way of winning?"

There are brief moments where Slot tries something different in an effort to get his side to perform like he knows they can, but the inability and refusal to stick with his own experiments is frustrating.

Getting a draw to Sunderland isn't objectively a terrible result, especially when you consider the side were losing the game before Nordi Mukiele scored an own-goal equaliser for us in the 81st minute and it took a late last-ditch block on the goal line from Federico Chiesa to keep the scoreline at 1-1.

But that's just four wins in fourteen games, which is a truly damning indictment of where the team's at right now, and that's with the manager responsible for the most wins in the club's history in their opening fifty league games. It's maddening knowing how far we've regressed from last season, with £450m worth of investment having been spent in aid of helping the side to retain their league title.

Speculation around Slot's future will rage on this winter, and for good reason, but it's honestly difficult to know where to go from here. FSG are not looking at potential replacements for him, although it almost feels negligent allowing the team to underperform like this every week.

Would another manager get a different tune out of the players, or have the new investments genuinely been a waste of money, setting the team back from one of it's greatest modern peaks?

Those queries and many more are far from simple to answer, and with matches coming thick and fast, you feel as though we've got no choice but to stick with Slot, despite how troubling it all is.