Arne Slot warned he is not walking into a ‘healthy’ situation at Liverpool

Graeme Souness believes Arne Slot is walking into “not such a healthy situation” at Liverpool after the club’s fortunes nosedived in recent months.

The former Anfield midfielder and manager is critical of the club’s late-season collapse, saying the players and staff “have got to look at themselves”.

Souness suggests Feyenoord coach Slot now faces an uphill battle as he is lined up to replace Jürgen Klopp after the German steps down this summer.

“After the Carabao Cup final I would have said whoever gets the Liverpool job is walking into a very healthy situation,” said Souness at the launch of Every Minute Matters, a Sky Bet and British Heart Foundation campaign to inspire the nation to learn life-saving CPR.

“But I look at it now and it’s not such a healthy situation. If we are talking about what the future looks like for Liverpool, are we looking at Liverpool for the first seven months of the season? Or are we talking about Liverpool for the last few months of the season? Because only the players can answer that and we have to wish the new manager the best of luck.”

Souness said Liverpool had missed a huge opportunity this season, having won the Carabao Cup in February and been two points clear at the top after a 3-1 victory over Sheffield United on April 4.

However, there have been FA Cup and Europa League exits in recent weeks and just five points in their past five games have ended their title hopes.

“It’s a disappointing end to the season for Liverpool,” Souness told the Daily Mail.  “I thought they would win the Premier League. They were playing a brand of football where they didn’t have to play well to win games because there was so much firepower in the team.

“That’s gone in the last couple of months, and they’ve gone from a team that could score for fun to a team that can’t score. They’ve got to look at themselves. At the time that really mattered, they couldn’t deal with that pressure for whatever reason.”

Former Sky Sports regular Souness was back on screen for ITV’s coverage of Manchester United’s dramatic FA Cup win against Liverpool before the international break, and he will be at the European Championship this summer for Scotland’s opener against hosts Germany.

“I will never retire,” the pundit told Telegraph Sport last month. “I will be retired when the phone stops ringing.”

The Every Minute Matters campaign is a year-long partnership between Sky Bet and the British Heart Foundation to inspire the nation to learn life-saving CPR. Learn CPR in 15 minutes for FREE with British Heart Foundation’s online training course.