The SURPRISE candidate to replace Arne Slot

There's a surprise candidate to replace Arne Slot at Liverpool who might be the most obvious natural successor.

The Reds are at a precarious moment in the club's history. It feels very much like Slot has come to the end of his reign prematurely at Anfield.

Having won just 21 of his last 42 matches in charge, his job at the club feels untenable. This is simply not a blip anymore but a very bad run of form.

A run of form that no head-coach nor manager of Liverpool should survive. Liverpool managers cannot have a 50% win rate. It doesn't matter that Slot won the Premier League title and that he won a lot of his games before those 42 matches.

What matters is that the form this season and towards the end of last season has been nothing short of poor. Liverpool cannot survive with him in charge. A change needs to be made.

Rightfully so, people then ask the question, if not Slot then who?

It's not an easy answer. There's no obvious solution. We'd all have Jurgen Klopp back in a heartbeat but whether he really wants to take that job is moot.

Other than Klopp you don't have many major candidates to succeed Slot. There's talk of Oliver Glasner or Andoni Iraola and they wouldn't necessarily be awful appointments but do they have the potential to be elite coaches?

Again the answer is moot.

There is one manager though who is showcasing elite potential. A manager who won a league title and has achieved historic results wherever he has gone.

The most perfect and surprise candidate to replace Slot is Rui Borges of Sporting CP. Only 44-years-old, he's very much at the beginning of his career in management.

But he's done some excellent work so far. In his first role as manager of Moreirense he helped the club to their best ever finish in the top-flight of Portuguese football.

After that he led Vitoria de Guimaraes to the Europa Conference League phase, which again was an impressive achievement for the young man.

Last season he ended up winning the league title with Sporting and he's got a great chance of achieving that again this season. Meanwhile in the Champions League, his Sporting side are sitting above Liverpool in 8th place right now.

Borges plays an attractive high intensity football that would suit Liverpool's players and it's one that the fans can get behind as well.

Based on his career he's always been able to exceed or meet expectations which is the sign of a great manager. So, ultimately Borges seems like the most obvious candidate right now.

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