As Liverpool fans, we don’t like to lose. Thankfully, it isn’t an experience we’ve had to endure that much in the past decade or so. From the point of Jürgen Klopp’s first full season in charge of the Reds, the most Premier League games that we’ve lost in a campaign is nine, which was the case in both 2020-2021 and 2022-2023.
Those seasons felt like complete disasters, but then you remember that the first came on the back of us winning the top-flight for the first time since 1990 and the second was in the wake of the near-quadruple winning campaign and maybe things haven’t been too bad.
The problem is, the wheels feel like they’ve come off for Arne Slot, with some Liverpool supporters even calling for the Dutchman to be sacked. The question is, where have things gone wrong and is it possible to get them back on track?
Diogo Jota
Any attempts to work out what has happened to Liverpool this season without a discussion around the loss of Diogo Jota simply shouldn’t be taken seriously. If you are lucky enough never to have lost anyone close to you, then you will have no idea of the impact that such a thing can have on your life.
If you have, however, then you will be only too aware of just how difficult it must be for those young lads to get out onto a football pitch and perform. It isn’t just that Jota and his brother, André Silva, died, but that it happened in such utterly horrendous and tragic circumstances.
There is not one member of the Liverpool team that knew the Portuguese player that won’t have visualised the awful way in which the pair died, whether they wanted to or not. They didn’t get to say goodbye to him, yet everywhere they look at the AXA Training Centre and Anfield will remind them of their friend. Whilst I think that it is done with the best of intentions, I can’t imagine that the crowd singing the Jota song every 20 minutes helps anyone.
@lfcvibes1975 In today’s opening game of the season, Liverpool players and fans paid a heartfelt tribute to Diogo Jota.” Diogo Jota made a great start with Liverpool by scoring in his Premier League debut against Arsenal back in September 2020. #liverpoolfc #f #viral_video #liverpooltiktok#lfcc ♬ original sound – LFCVibes
Most people who suffer a loss turn to work to get over it, but the players can’t. That they can get out and perform at all is worthy of immense praise, in my opinion.
New Players Bedding In
Pyaet, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The writer Paul Tomkins has done a wealth of excellent work that looks at the fact that it normally takes until a player’s second season before they really hit their stride. When you throw in the fact that Arne Slot has, to use an analogy from Amelia Bona on The Anfield Wrap, got a load of new clothes for Christmas and has been trying to wear them all at once, you can start to understand why we might be struggling. Then there’s the fact that both of our right-backs tend to suffer from injury issues, which has led to our most important midfielder in Dominik Szoboszlai, having to play there.
i don’t get to complain because liverpool walked to the title last year and this year was always going to be a transition year while they bed in new players but also i would like to complain
— not an art thief (@famousartthief.bsky.social) 19 October 2025 at 17:11
Many are happy to be critical of Florian Wirtz and it’s certainly true that the German hasn’t had quite the impact that we were all expecting. That isn’t entirely down to him, however. The underlying numbers show that he’s set up numerous people for golden opportunities that they haven’t taken, which isn’t his fault. Meanwhile, Alexander Isak didn’t have a pre-season, meaning he’s not been able to start as many games as we’d all like and is now picking up injuries to keep him out of the team. None of that is ideal, but hopefully it’s all stuff that will prove to be a short-term problem.
The League Has Changed
I could talk about the bad luck that Liverpool have suffered at times this season, but people don’t like to admit how much of a role fortune plays in sport. As a result, therefore, I will instead point to the fact that the league in general has changed. Personally, I think it’s taken a backwards step, but I’m sure Arsenal supporters would disagree. Nevertheless, what we can see is that the Reds spent this summer recruiting for a possession-based approach to life in the top-flight, only to discover that physicality is more important than ever. In short, Mikel Arteta has led the charge towards the Stokeification of the Premier League.
Long throws, balls into the box and set-pieces are the currency being used in the top-flight this season, which Liverpool really aren’t built for. Yes, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and the aforementioned Szoboszlai can all handle themselves, as can some others, but players like Jeremie Frimpong, Alexis Mac Allister and Florian Wirtz aren’t quite so capable. No one really saw that coming, but the Reds definitely didn’t and I think that the manager has struggled to work out how to cope with it. I have faith in the Dutchman to
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