Jurgen Klopp has been warned by Jason Cundy that he is not indispensable and that he could end up paying the ultimate price if Liverpool's fortunes don't improve.
The Reds have made a surprisingly lacklustre start to the new Premier League campaign, and Klopp has already conceded that Sunday's 3-2 defeat against Arsenal - who are now 14 points ahead of his side - was terminal in terms of the club's title hopes.
Liverpool's alarming drop-off in form comes just months after they came agonisingly close to clinching an unprecedented quadruple under Klopp last year. But the German has been warned that the heroics of last season - and the accolades he has already chalked up during his Anfield tenure - may not be enough to save him unless results significantly improve.
That is the verdict of Cundy, who first questioned Klopp's position in the wake of Thomas Tuchel's surprise exit from Chelsea last month. And in the aftermath of another disappointing result, Cundy told talkSPORT: "I said not long ago is there any reason why Klopp can't be sacked? This was after [Thomas] Tuchel got sacked by Chelsea. Chelsea were above Liverpool in the league and at that stage had a better start to the Champions League group stage, that was the situation.
"Klopp anytime soon I don't believe is going to be talked about [leaving]. But there's a stat I heard today that I found astonishing. In the same amount of games as Brendan Rodgers' final season, they were 10th but with two points less when Brendan got the sack.
"Now obviously what Klopp has done for Liverpool Football Club in the last six years has been absolutely remarkable. But the money-men upstairs, if it looks like Liverpool might miss out on the top four, let me tell you some stranger decisions have been made. That's all I'm going to say."
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Although Tuchel's exit was a surprise, Blues co-owner Todd Boehly confirmed that a difference of opinions over the club's future direction was the driving force behind the decision to part ways with the German, rather than the results on the pitch.
There had been suggestions that Klopp, who left both Mainz and Borussia Dortmund after seven seasons, could soon be in a similar scenario after reaching that landmark at Anfield.
But Klopp, who has plenty of credit in the bank after winning both the Premier League title and the Champions League during his tenure, quashed those suggestions. He said last week: "I can understand that I left after seven years [previously] and now we are in a difficult situation and people take that (view) but, if you think twice about it, you realise the situation is completely different.
"Yes, it's a difficult time; did I think before the season we would be ninth after matchday seven? No, because I don't think about these things. But this is the basis now, let's go from here."
