The biggest surprise of Liverpool’s 2025/26 campaign so far is not their confused and stringy performances - but the fact that nobody saw it coming.
The deadline-day decision to spend a club-record fee on a second number nine of the window, just as their only bid for a defender was collapsing, was a pretty stark warning of things to come.
It’s one thing to follow a title triumph with an enormous summer upheaval and another altogether to focus almost exclusively on buying attacking players. Arne Slot leant into individualism, replacing hard-pressing attackers or long-serving defenders with footballers who starred as outliers in their previous teams, from Jeremy Frimpong to Florian Writz to Alexander Isak.
Liverpool are lucky they are only two points off the top. They have under-performed in every single Premier League game this season, with late goals only papering over the cracks prior to their three consecutive defeats in the last fortnight. Opta has Liverpool on 11.5 ‘expected points’, the sixth most in the division.
Slot needs to use this international break to make some big changes. Thankfully, diagnosing the problem isn’t difficult.
Florian Wirtz looks too lightweight at the moment to operate from the front of midfield, which has left Liverpool open to opposition counter-attacks that begin through the centre of the pitch. Once Wirtz is bypassed, there are too many spaces through the middle to cover.
When the ball enters the final third Liverpool are particularly susceptible down both wings, where the full-backs are struggling in the one-on-ones and seem inadequately supported by the midfielders, a knock-on effect of issues around Wirtz. Ibrahima Konate, in dreadful form, has been further knocked by constant changes at right-back.
In attack, Liverpool lack the rhythms that come with game-time together, while Mohamed Salah’s poor form is a major disruption. They miss his consistency, but also that of Luis Diaz on the other side.
The first thing Slot might do is work on slowing things down again. Liverpool’s pressing intensity is too high, and if they focused more on regrouping in a mid-block – at least during the settling-in period for new players – they will be able to compress space around Konate and Wirtz, and, crucially, regain a sense of control.
Most of their new signings come from aggressive, high-pressing, fast-transitioning teams: Bournemouth, Newcastle United, Eintracht Frankfurt, and Bayer Leverkusen. Liverpool need to take a breath; to do so requires significant tactical instruction. Pep Guardiola, a huge influence on Slot, has done as much this season, easing off in the press to bring back some of the slower, suffocating possession of old. This is a good starting point for Liverpool.
From here, Slot could choose to move into a back three when Liverpool have possession by instructing Kerkez to tuck in rather than get forward. A back three means more support for the struggling Konate (as well as for Kerkez, simplifying his adaptation period) and, in theory, means more bodies in the defensive line to help cover the gaps out wide.
This shape would also free the right-back to bomb forward, allowing Slot to get Frimpong back into the team. Liverpool badly miss the attacking presence of Trent Alexander-Arnold, not least because he drew attention away from Salah. Frimpong would overlap, requiring adaptation from Salah, but Liverpool’s talisman is too isolated at the moment and would surely improve with attacking support on that side.
That’s one more new signing in, but another should come out. For now Liverpool need the more robust and defensively intelligent Dominic Szoboszlai in the number ten role, especially to counter-balance Frimpong and Salah on the right; only with Szoboszlai’s energy can Ryan Gravenberch shuffle all the way across to the right-hand side as he is often did to cover Alexander-Arnold.
Curtis Jones also deserves a run in the team ahead of Alexis Mac Allister, who is another player looking out of sorts, while Joe Gomez should at least be given an opportunity to move ahead of Konate in the pecking order.
Slow things down, stop the press, change formation, and swap out four regular starters; those are big changes, but Liverpool’s wobbly start to 2025/26 requires something significant to recapture the spirit of last season and provide a foundation for the new players settle.
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