Liverpool-focused journalist David Lynch has rightly condemned some of the horrific personal abuse being levelled at Arne Slot from the murkiest corners of social media.
The head coach’s reputation has plummeted over the past 12 months, with the Reds suffering 20 defeats in all competitions this season and barely scraping into the fifth and final Champions League place from England, and there have been widespread calls for him to be relieved of his duties.
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However, FSG appear set to stick with the under-fire Dutchman for the time being, a stance which seems to be underlined by the expected appointment of Etienne Reijnen – previously part of his coaching staff at Feyenoord – to the backroom team at Anfield.
Lynch condemns online personal abuse of Slot
On Tuesday morning, Dominic King wrote an article for The Telegraph in which he wrote that ‘the level of opprobrium’ towards Slot has frequently ‘crossed the line’, a view which met with vocal opposition from numerous X users replying to the piece on the social media platform.
Lynch lamented some of the more vicious responses as he posted on X: ‘The replies to this post [King’s article on Slot] back up the piece perfectly. Criticism is fine, as is feeling Liverpool might need a change, but so much of this strays into outright abuse.’
In a follow-up post relating to the same topic, he underlined his viewpoint by saying: ‘You’re allowed to want him gone, just stop abusing him.’
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Criticism of Slot’s work is fine; personal abuse isn’t
No Liverpool supporter will be happy with how the past season played out, and many fans understandably feel that a change in the dugout would give the club a better chance of success next term than keeping faith with Slot.
We at Empire of the Kop have been quite critical of the head coach after a turgid campaign which has been rife with awful results, football which has been hard to watch, some truly bizarre public utterances from the 47-year-old and two headline-grabbing outbursts of frustration from Mo Salah.
However, there is (or at least should be) a clear dividing line between valid constructive criticism of the Dutchman’s performance in his job, and unacceptable personal vitriol which completely dehumanises a husband and father.
One of the most disgusting examples of the abuse being hurled at Slot can be seen below in a screenshotted post on X which, unsurprisingly, has since been removed. In fact, it’s so unspeakably vile that we advise reader discretion before viewing it.
You can want the manager at Liverpool changed, fair enough but then there is the vile abuse online toward him and his family.
I’ve seen some horrible stuff on here over the years but this one is one of the worst.
We need these out of the fanbase. pic.twitter.com/uc71vajCif
— Nick Collins (@Nick___Collins) May 26, 2026
Nothing can justify that extent of hatred towards another human being purely because of how they’re performing in their job.
Lynch hasn’t been afraid to call out Slot over certain tactical issues this season, but he’s right to condemn the online personal abuse of the Liverpool head coach because of how the team’s fortunes have deteriorated over the past few months.
Ultimately, we all want the Reds to be successful, whether it’s with the Dutchman in charge or somebody else. Yes, he absolutely needs to oversee a major improvement next term, and failure to do so could lead to a justifiable change in the dugout, but we don’t condone any personal vitriol towards him or his family.
None of the fans here wish misfortune to happen to arne slot. In fact we wish him well for his future endeavors.
Are we allowed to suggest that the guy is in well above his head? Can we say something about that deer-in-the-headlamp look?
I don’t wish Arne Slot harm but do wish him gone from LFC as he is clearly not good enough to manage the club,20 losses says it all.Any other clubs would have sacked him by now.
Personal abuse is OUT and should be vilified justly.
You are clowns. You think an immediate change will bring results. Give the man a clean slate. We got champions league in a year of transition with the old guard moving out and the new moving in, plus with major injury issues, salah not on form, Isak injured, poor Jotas death. Mac Allister disappearing. Bradley getting injured, Trent moving on.
How is this slots fault? Thankfully you boys don’t run business’s and hopefully not families or your kids will be chucked out at the first sign of fragility. And as for the mentally deranged guys saying terrible stuff online – it’s a breeding ground for mentally ill people to say what they want – who cares really but here is a fans forum and Liverpool fans will be no better than any other set of supporters if we continue to demand immediate change when things aren’t perfect
PMC do you see how dull we play? We’ve drawn against all the promoted teams. Dull football, stagnation of young players, favouritism of Dutch players. The league has exposed his ‘magic’ (pass to Gakpo, cut and shot).
So did man united thought of Amorim. I will screenshot this page – this bald-headed Brendan Rodgers will be sacked before Christmas.
The guy is arrogant….the “club was playing Europa league 2 years ago and lost to Atalanta” – did he know the kind of injury list we had? He destroyed Quansah. We had Ramsay at right back but he keeps playing Szobo and Jones there even though Macca was out of foam. He keeps playing Gakpo even though Rio and Chiesa are on the bench. He does not watch academy games and does not rate academy players.
Do you think Pep, Ancelloti, Mourinho, arteta go to youth games. We’re constantly placing Jurgen Klopp as the standard for managers. No one is going to be like him. Would Quansah be on the bench at Real Madrid, Barcelona, city etc? If he would be they’d have tried to sign him by now. Who else can play right back when Bradley is injured, frimpong is not looking up to the standard.
Give it a chance.
It’s one season. Anyone who’s a Liverpool
Supporter long term knows it was 30yrs of terrible seasons and the Liverpool fans were still the best around. Now we’ve had a taste for success that the second we drop below 1st and 2nd, we change the management, directors? All our main players haven’t played well. Is that the managers fault that salah has lost a yard of pace and kept getting dispossessed when trying to cut inside? Is it the managers fault Konate was one mistake after the other. Too many bad things happened all at once. Give the current set up 10-15 games into next season and then if it’s still shite, no one will have any excuses, and I’ll firmly be in the same camp as you, where it’s time for a change. In my eyes we have never been a club that throws out people who brought us success.
If we give him 10 or 15 games then we are in the s***. What happens then is we will be down amongst the dead men. What happened to Spurs could happen to the Reds. He looks like a rabbit caught in the headlights. What does he do, bring in another Dutchman?
Now this is a good example of an insult or abusive comment. We have our own careers and we are doing well enough, not as clowns. We do not abuse nor call slot names like you just did. Like what Liam togher mentioned, it is constructive criticism and no real liverpool fans can find anything good from what arne slot did this season.
It’s all about opinions, but there’s a line you don’t cross. Personal insults ect is way over the top.
I genuinely hope that slot can turn things around, although I Don’t think he will. I would also say this about slot, he’s been dignified in the way he’s conducted himself at Liverpool, especially during the tragedy of Jota, supporters should remember this.
It’s a different age we are living in now, more violent, more aggressive, don’t want to see it at Liverpool football club.
yes that tweet was totally over the top. but there will be parts of criticism of him that will be undeniably personal as many issues seem to stem from his character. work ethic, personal integrity (or lack of) and his totally inappropriate work arrangements.
After the massive spending LFC did before the past season, we expected better. Some of Slot’s comments after loses did not inspire confidence. I just think it is time to move on from him. He has had two full seasons now and we seem to be going in reverse.