Liverpool kept their faltering title hopes alive last Sunday with a 3-1 victory over Fulham. A win tonight in the Merseyside derby would see them go level on points with Arsenal and open up a four-point gap over Manchester City.
The Reds will be without the scorer of their third goal at Craven Cottage, Diogo Jota, who will be out for two weeks with a hip issue.
Off the pitch, there was another Portuguese footballing figure hogging the attention of Kopites around the world this week. The Athletic’s David Ornstein described the chances of Sporting CP manager Rúben Amorim replacing Jürgen Klopp as ‘unlikely’, with the 39-year-old now believed to a top target for West Ham.
The new bookies’ favourite is Feyenoord boss Arne Slot, who was referred to by The Athletic’s LFC correspondent James Pearce as a ‘strong candidate’ for the role. Slot was believed to be close to landing the Tottenham job last summer after winning last season’s Eredivisie.
On the latest episode of our Journo Insight Show, we spoke to experienced LFC journalist Neil Jones for his thoughts on the club’s search for a new manager.
NO AMORIM… ARNE SLOT THE NEW FAVOURITE TO SUCCEED JURGEN KLOPP! | The Deep Dive
Neil said:
“I think you could definitely call it a twist in the saga.
“West Ham is a significant strange one, isn’t it? If you’re going to be the Liverpool manager, or in the frame to be the Liverpool manager, you feel like you’re dropping down a couple of rungs on the ladder if you’re going to be the West Ham manager.
“Where’s the story come from? It’s come from Rúben Amorim, hasn’t it? Or his camp.
“So that tells you that he doesn’t feel like he’s going to be Liverpool’s next manager. I think it tells you, that he’s obviously desperate to come to the Premier League, I think there’s no secret to that.
“I saw the betting list when I looked, Arne Slot was obviously one of the managers now who emerged.
“I was probably a little bit surprised he didn’t come up right at the start when it was sort of like these four or five younger, less established managers who might be available.
“I was surprised that his name didn’t come up because he was really close to Tottenham 12 months ago.”
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Redmen Reacts
It is now looking increasingly likely that Arne Slot – hailed as ‘outstanding’ by Kevin van Nunen – is going to be the next Liverpool manager. The move would have seemed unlikely when Jürgen Klopp announced his departure from the club, but the 45-year-old Dutchman has clearly impressed the decision-makers at LFC. Slot has a good CV in his home country, boasting a win percentage of over 55% at every club he has managed. He led Feyenoord to the title last season, only the second time the Rotterdam side have won the Eredivisie this century. He added the KNVB Beker – the Dutch FA Cup equivalent – to his list of honours only last weekend. He has also won the Rinus Michels Award for the best coach in the Netherlands for the last two seasons. However, the previous winner of that award was another bald Dutchman who is faring poorly about 25 miles east of Anfield. Critics may wonder if the step up from Eredivisie to the Premier League is too big a jump for a manager with limited experience at the elite level.
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