I've been texting Arne Slot - these are the signs he's feeling the strain

In Holland they have a word for it: wanhoop.

Roughly translated it means despair or hopelessness. And that is the way that some of those close to Arne Slot, Liverpool’s under-pressure head coach, have described his demeanour as the walls start to close in at Anfield.

“Everyone in Holland thinks he’s a magician because of the results he’s achieved in his managerial career. For the first time now we realise he’s a normal manager, a normal human being,” Mikos Gouka, Slot’s biographer and author of the recently released Arne Slot: A New Era , tells The i Paper .

Gouka has been in regular contact with Slot in recent weeks, exchanging frequent text messages with the Liverpool boss.

Slot has spoken of his frustration and admitted that things “aren’t going good” but has tried to keep conve