Sometimes we just need to stop and realise how our expectations have been distorted to such levels that everything bar perfection makes us miserable. This is why there’s so much frustration in modern life, as everyone wants perfection.
No patience. No time to adjust, adapt. Just everything right now, just as we want it.
For instance, go back to the summer of 2024, and ask yourself if you’d take winning the title – running away with the damn league – with a squad that needed revamping (but is left to 2025), and also in the wake of Jürgen Klopp’s seismic departure … and that it will be followed by a not-so-great season.
Only a madman wouldn’t take that, unless it was worse than mid-table – but the hedonic treadmill distorts what we see as acceptable. And that’s before considering the issues that arose in the aftermath of that title win.
So, next, go back in time and tell yourself as you celebrated the league title in the early summer of 2025 that the following will happen:
Diogo Jota will die in a car crash on the weekend preseason is due to start.
Read that again, in case it’s lost its impact. I don’t want to labour this point, but sometimes things start to seem abstract; not least as Saint Diogo was never in our lives – we just saw him on the pitch, we didn’t train and chat and joke with him every single day. And some of us said this season will be tough because of this last summer, and for every week, well into this autumn and winter, until they gave up repeating themselves (okay, that was me).
This is the big one, with no time limit on the effects it has, other than if you are affected for the first third of the season, then league-table-pressure will be different. Ex-Reds like James Milner – no simpering soy-boy – and Caoimhín Kelleher talk about how hard they have found this season, and how much they loved and miss Diogo; but they also say that it must be much harder for the players still at the club.
Except, the players at the club, and the manager, will not be able to say this, lest some prick say that they’re making “excuses”. As that’s what pricks say.
(Players and managers also can’t use an injury crisis as an ‘excuse’. This is part of the weird doublespeak they have to do, because if they do mention those things, with strong justification, they will be derided all the same. It’s the same with horrific officiating that costs you. If you point it out, it’s taken a sign of weakness, not as a sign of reality, context, or the true world as it is. It’s like saying “I have double pneumonia” – and here the music fan in me wants to add in a single room – and they say “Pah! Everyone gets a little cold!”.)
Preseason will be disrupted, as you’d expect. Players will fly to Portugal for the funeral, having just been there for Jota’s wedding, to his beautiful childhood sweetheart and with their three young kids loving life. After this, no one can train properly for a good while, in what is already a summer of chaos and change. New players arrive into a very unsettling scene.
Liverpool will tire badly late in games. This will need to be addressed, but is surely linked to preseason in some way. Chasing the winner late in games, the Reds will get done on the break.
Ahead of you will be a season where, for the most part, no team will play “good football”, as Premier League teams opt for size and functionality: playing shitball, defending deep, going direct and aerial, contesting 50-50s and looking for the Charles Reep 1968 rebound, hurling in long throws, aiming to win corners, and man-marking everyone out of the game. Most teams want to play on the counter – but if you aim to do that and your opponent does the same, you have a stalemate. If you want to press the opposition, they now often just go over you, as fewer teams build from the back, with more long goalkicks these days.
In the season ahead Premier League will become even stronger in terms of depth (and power), having already been so in 2024-25; but teams like Bayern and PSG have easier leagues, and can stockpile the best players in their country, to coast through the Champions League. The Premier League will be equitable in that everyone will be dragged down to lowest-dominator football. The fear of the huge financial cost of relegation from the Premier League will perhaps stop teams trying to be expansive and risky. (But these things come and go in waves.) Leeds will come up, with the plan to buy only big bastards.
Trent Alexander Arnold will leave, which we all knew was going to happen, but his replacements, Conor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong, suffer serious and ongoing injuries. Liverpool will get through at least seven right-backs due to injury.
Johnny Heitinga will leave, to become manager of Ajax. So there’s some backroom change, too. Senior coaches are rarely the geniuses behind all the success that some myths portray, but clearly he played an important role at Liverpool, hence his promotion to manage Ajax.
Luis Díaz leaves, having first been unsettled by Barcelona, and moves to Bayern for big wages as his 30s loom. He’s missed, of course, but fans often found him wasteful, and that he ran down blind alleys. I personally thought he was a great finisher, but had a bad 2023-24, after his parents were, er, kidnapped.
One reason Díaz will be sold is that the Reds already have an ageing winger on the other flank, who the fans had been clamouring to be given that big fat new deal. If anyone would have taken Díaz over Salah a year ago, please let me know. Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
(I’d have sold Salah two years ago, so what do I know?)
Salah will finally start showing his age – as well as tantrums of what I’ve long called the Toxic Rot of the Ageing Superstar. This is huge, as he played a massive role in the 2025 title success, with a genuinely all-time great season when Arne Slot gave him the freedom to no longer defend at all. But first he will be badly affected by Jota’s death, and then he’s down on sharpness. Then his confidence will plummet, as teams work out he won’t defend.
Then, more alarmingly, when Arne Slot has been kind by delaying dropping him, Salah will throw his toys out the pram. Again, you can almost set your watch to a fading superstar doing this, which is why I’ve been noting in for a decade or more.
The bigger the star, the more they kick and scream on the way out. They rarely look at themselves, with true humility, but often blame everyone else instead. Once a player becomes a brand, and icon, a living legend, it’s hard to have them be part of a team. But it means there’s a chance to find a new, young fast, skilful right-winger who can speed up the team, just as Salah himself did in 2017.
(Edit: Also, to add, Salah may have started the trend of going to the gym before training in 2017, but don’t think players don’t do that, or aren’t 100% professional. They are anti-dickheads, who work hard. But not every player will be as obsessive as Salah, who took it to real extremes that might not suit everyone.)
Liverpool will finally land Alexander Isak for £120m, to much celebration – the best all-round no.9 in the Premier League. But he will arrive late, with no preseason after a drawn-out saga (as Newcastle pull out all the stops to try and keep him), meaning he’ll take a few games to get up to speed, let alone adjust to the new playing style; then he’ll have his leg broken just when getting some sharpness, and next, suffer a muscle injury after more than four months out (as is the norm for a lot of returning players). Isak will appear in 21 games in all competitions, but play the equivalent of just 11 (1,000 minutes), scoring four non-penalty goals.
Liverpool will sign the sensational Florian Wirtz, just as he turns 22, and who will create the 2nd-most chances from open play in the league; but who will also take a few months to get going, and like a lot of players new to England, the first season is about adaptation (bar those who rarer ones who hit the ground running). Look at the physical development and thus the output of Dominik Szoboszlai at 25, versus 22/23, as I said would happen when he was 22/23 and people doubted him. (Even Man City’s Jeremy Doku will learn to shoot and cross in the latter stages of 2026, as he approaches 24, several years after he arrived in England.)
Wirtz will have a better first season in England than Luka Modrić, Robert Pires, Denis Bergkamp, Mo Salah, Luis Suarez and a whole host of players who were, or who went on to become Premier League and world elite players, and he will be younger than them all at the time, moving club for the first time since he was just 16; but somehow people will keep talking as if he’s a failure.
Hugo Ekitiké, who does settle quickly, will be a revelation, but his achilles will snap at a key point of the season, early in a key game; the 7th player to have his season either ended or as good as ended, while two excellent younger players who would be getting minutes don’t even get started. If he’s back before 2027 he’ll be doing well.
Ekitiké will add vital pace, but Salah is visibly slowing. Isak is quick too, but not when not match-fit, and certainly not with a broken leg (just try a bit harder, Alexander!). Jeremy Frimpong is the fastest player at the club but will have so many muscle injuries, for the first time in his career, that he loses sharpness and a belief in his ability to go past players, which he does easily at first. Bradley is quick, but not with his knee in six pieces.
Darwin Núñez, who was quick, also leaves, and will only be ‘missed’ because Isak makes only a handful of starts. Isak is miles better than Núñez, but Isak with a broken leg is as useful as Sean Dundee aged 53. Anyone still craving Darwin Núñez is not dealing with the reality of Darwin Núñez.
Salah’s goal tally also suffers as Liverpool will only get one league penalty after the first weeks of the season (a measly, illogical one in 31 games), despite 5-6 clear ones denied by refs and VARs; similarly with four clear opposition DOGSOs not given, as part of a trend that means it’s over 20 years since Liverpool got an Anfield DOGSO in the league –unless it was for blatant handball on the goalline (2017, 2020), or a foul by the goalkeeper – 17 years ago (2009).
Also, Liverpool will concede a goal with their keeper down injured, and a vital 1st-minute goal at home to Man United when Mac Allister needs six stitches in a head wound – but the game is not immediately stopped; other times it’s stopped for opponents for an eyelash out of place. Liverpool will have a key goal for a subjective offside ruled out, then the very next game, concede a key goal with a subjective offside that is not ruled out. A Man United player will score with his hand and it be okay, but Liverpool will have a last-minute winner ruled out for hitting Mac Allister’s back with his arm at his side. Wirtz will get karate-kicked in the stomach, and Ekitiké will run for six seconds with a Leeds player on his back, in the 6th minute, before being dragged over in the box, and the ref and VAR will just shrug, as, y’know, it’s Liverpool, right?
Which reminds me, before I continue, I need to update the article below, which also includes video of the incidents:
Liverpool will “lose” a lot of reliable younger – but far from raw – backup/squad players as they want more game-time. Which is normal. Those who come in are aged 16-18, and are perhaps more talented, but not physically ready to start many games. It’s a good experience for them, all the same.
Caoimhín Kelleher, Harvey Elliott, Tyler Morton, Ben Doak and Jarell Quansah leave in order to play games – as Liverpool had very few injuries in 2024-25, which frustrated them all. It also provides money to invest in world-class players, like Isak and Wirtz, who both seem like no-brainers. And Quansah, who turns 23 in Germany and starts to grow in stature, can be bought back, in 2027 or earlier if all parties agree – albeit Ibou Konaté, whose dad suddenly died this season, looks likely to stay (and has had a great season in many ways, but interspersed with a series of howlers). And Jérémy Jacquet, signed for £60m ahead of 2026-27, is a very exciting young centre-back who can cover a lot of ground at speed, and plays football like a midfielder.
Alisson will miss even more games than usual, and Liverpool will play key Premier League fixtures with Freddie Woodman in goal. (If you go back to May 2025, some of you may be asking, “Er, who?”)
Liverpool will spend over £30m on super-über-talented 6’5” teenager Giovanni Leoni as the 4th centre-back, and he’ll snap his ACL on his impressive debut at the start of the season.
Due to a massive injury crisis, Liverpool will go to Old Trafford in May not only with Freddie Woodman in goal, but with a bench of Federico Chiesa, Joe Gomez, Milos Kerkez (who is not 100% fit), Kieran Morrison, Mor Talla Ndiaye, Rio Ngumoha, Trey Nyoni, Armin Pécsi and Will Wright. Some of these kids may join Ngumoha in breaking through, but most are young and very, very raw.
Milos Kerkez will get abuse – seemingly – simply for not being Andy Robertson, who was older when he joined Liverpool, and didn’t even make the bench for most of Klopp’s first 25 games in 2017-18, as he was picking Alberto Moreno instead. Robertson is a club legend, but has been a faded force for some time now, with a massive weakness on defending the back-post, and the penalty spot (see the goals Liverpool have conceded in the last few games). Even so, he was allowed time to settle nine years ago, with lower expectations, too. (I remember defending why the Reds signed him from rubbish relegated Hull City, just as I defended the signing of Gini Wijnaldum, then spent a 1-2 years pointing out how great Wijnaldum was, but many people couldn’t see it.)
As noted, English football will see a massive ramping up of set-pieces and corners. Arne Slot will not have his set-piece coach, who would have been useful in the first half of 2025-26, when the Reds struggle badly with set-pieces. Etiënne Reijnen, a key assistant for Slot, will get his paperwork ready to gain a work permit this time. Liverpool sacked their make-do set-piece coach, and went from super-cold to super-hot, then back to normal.
As happened three times under Jürgen Klopp (2017-18, 2020-21 and 2022-23), Liverpool will be mid-table well into the season. Each time I stated that I felt confident that the Reds would climb the table again.
The most alarming one was 2022-23, when the team was clearly old and slowing, which was the main issue. Klopp threw in some younger players, and things got energised, but we’ve barely seen Stefan Bajcetic since, due to injuries which are an increasing issue with younger players as the league gets faster and more brutal.
Bajcetic will be joined by the equally talented, big and strong Jayden Danns, as players at an age – 20/21 – to start to be physically ready for the Premier League, but their teenage exertions married to growth spurts have weakened the squad in a way a lot of people won’t even have noticed. Bajcetic had excelled on loan in Spain last season, but suffered a serious injury in the summer. And of course, the aforementioned Leoni is another of the next-gen stars, now 19, rendered unusable due to injury. These three could all be future Liverpool stars. This season, they could all have been vital squad players.
(Another in this mould for next season is elite young centre-back Jérémy Jacquet –tall, fast, aggressive, great on the ball – who will break his shoulder the day after Liverpool sign him for 2026-27. This has no impact on 2025-26, but is remarkable all the same.)
This is pretty much the sole reason why the truly sublime Rio Ngumoha, who starts the season aged 16, will be wrapped in cotton wool, to protect his future at Liverpool, and not gamble on his career. Everyone wants everything now, but no one thinks of the consequences. (It will get harder to hold Rio back in 2026-27, but he’ll still only be aged 17/18, and the injury risks will still be there.) The sprints required in the English league, as well as the overall physicality, increases almost exponentially year on year. He is clearly getting stronger and faster, and can get even stronger and faster, as he’s only 17. But the risks are there, too.
As a result, the Premier League won’t be pretty, but Arsenal will stick with Mikel Arteta – despite constant talk of how he’s taken them as far as he can, and that he’s a loser, forever the bridesmaid, etc. – and they will likely win the Premier League, as well as definitely making the Champions League final. They play with four centre-backs, like a Gérard Houllier team. It’s not pretty, but their squad is so huge, in all senses, it will ‘work’, as they have what will already be their best overall season since 2004.
Two English clubs fighting relegation will have a chance of making the other two European finals, while the team that won the Europa League last season, Spurs, who have sacked countless managers as well as Daniel Levy, will be in the relegation zone at the start of May. (They will have a ton of injuries for the second year running, but as noted, it’s boring to point that out, as it’s not sensational enough. Football analysis is more fun if you just call a team shit, rather than weigh up all the factors. Albeit the manager last year was supposed to be injuring them due to making them press too hard.) The Europa competitions show the depth of the Premier League.
People will say you make your own luck in football, and in life, but this ignores the reality of luck, which is often out of your control. We all have periods of good and back luck. That’s the reality; you can’t control everything. If an opponent scores with their hand to go 2-0 up, and the VARs say that they cannot see the clear change of spin on the ball, then you can’t force them to either see it, or if they have functioning eyes, to make them give the decision and not avoid ruling it out as Gary Neville thinks it will harsh to rule it out (but it’s okay to rule it out if Liverpool do so, such as at Forest). You can look at the data and say that Stuart Attwell bottles countless decisions as a VAR when doing Liverpool games, but you can’t get rid of Stuart Attwell, as much as the PGMOL should.
Liverpool will have terrible luck when their £120m striker, in the act of scoring a goal, sees a 15-stone, 6’4” defender fly in late and break his ankle; you have no say in the matter. If your teenage prodigy centre-back does his ACL on his debut, as he will, you have no say in that. If your exceptional young right-back sees his knee break and his ligaments snap due to an awkward fall, you have no say in that.
And if your backups are also plagued by contact injuries and horrible accidents, as they will be in the season ahead, you can’t easily mitigate it. You ride it out, and work at reducing muscle injuries, which are more controllable, but never 100% in your control. Once you get 6-8 injuries you can’t rotate, then that begets more injuries.
On the topic of ‘luck’, the Reds will have three penalties given against them by VARs for fouls, which is more foul penalties than Liverpool have received in TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY THREE league games from VARs since the tech was introduced (two, both in 2022, both over 150 games ago).
Brentford will win five times as many penalties as Liverpool in 2025-26. Brentford will also get one against Liverpool, which is only the fifth time a foul outside the box – in both cases, which wasn’t even a foul – has ever been moved into the box by a VAR; Liverpool now have two of the five.
In 20 or more bad, terrible or just unhelpful decisions from officials, the Reds will drop up to a maximum of 28 points, with almost all of those poor/terrible decisions at key moments and in tight game-states. Even if a team cannot expect to get every decision, and even if a team will not score all their penalties or win when playing against 10 men, the odds of success increase massively – and the earlier the incident happens in a game, the greater your odds of winning, as stats show.
Things will not even themselves out; not in a season, and for Liverpool, not in five or ten years. But Brendan Rodgers had a penalty windfall in early 2014 – 10 in 13 league games to fuel that title challenge. Which is more penalties in less than a third of a season than the club has had in any full league season since. And five times as many in 13 games as the Reds will get in 35 in 2025/26. Ponder that!
Just a couple of these decisions going Liverpool’s way could have changed the entire complexion of the season, to relieve the pressure on the team at various junctures.
So, as I write, Liverpool sit 4th, having a 98.8% chance of finishing in the Champions League, after the delayed revamp happens.
Liverpool rose to 3rd in 2021 and 5th in 2023 from similar seasons, albeit with far less serious tragedies, but some of the injury and officiating concerns in those season that I focused on – as proof that Klopp was not finished, and hadn’t taken the Reds as far as he could (just as his final season at Dortmund, when his team were bottom at the halfway stage and rose to finish 7th, was determined to be back luck by Liverpool, hence why they hired him).
I defended Klopp and the club to the hilt in 2021 and 2023, and even late 2017, as I felt it was bad luck more than bad management. I feel the same way about Arne Slot.
Both 2021-22 and 2023-24 were good/great and exciting seasons, following difficult, dull ones. This is often how football works, as I’ve shown with my Alternate Season theory.
Just as it’s often how transitional seasons work, and even more so, seasons when you bring in a lot of new players, and seasons where you have a lot of injuries, and seasons where you get shitty officiating.
All of this is good preparation for next season, as part of how new young teams develop. To do so with Champions League football would be remarkable, in the circumstances.
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