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Liverpool Football Club is in freefall; it's not even debatable at this point. An unprecedented transfer spending spree in the summer has thrown up sporadic results and a dramatic slide down the Premier League — not to mention surrendering the crown before people have their Christmas trees up.
But is this all that surprising? Not really, if you actually look at the broader situation going on at Anfield, away from the seemingly-regular league defeats — the latest coming against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. I'm no Liverpool fan, but my job as a deputy editor for this website means I follow the club as closely as the one I actually support.
Let me be clear, this isn't really a time to play the blame game. This isn't the time to be pointing fingers, making up excuses or anything like that. Instead, I'm just going to offer up my opinion on what's actually going on in Merseyside.
Arne Slot was confirmed as the new Liverpool head coach on May 20, 2024. It took him under a year to do what it took Jurgen Klopp five years to do — win the Premier League.
He didn't even have any competition: Liverpool made it look easy, and it was largely a procession towards the title spearheaded by Mohamed Salah.
The idea that he should be fired a few months into his second season is utterly laughable. The rest of the Premier League should be begging FSG to actually do it.
Slot's Liverpool blew away the Premier League by such a comfortable margin that the boss was able to jet off to Ibiza for a holiday while the rest of the Reds' so-called rivals were still scrambling for second place.
When the dust settled on that season, few could have imagined what would happen, and the wider impact that would have on the team.
First, Trent Alexander-Arnold left. Okay, most people knew that was coming from a mile off. He'd been very publicly linked with Real Madrid since the summer of 2024, and Liverpool fans had enough time to talk themselves out of the need for him this season.
Liverpool lost arguably its most creative player, someone who could create a chance out of nothing while being 75 yards from goal. A transition period was needed, for sure. As good as he is — and he might well be the better defender — Conor Bradley doesn't offer the same thing as Alexander-Arnold does.
Then came July. Jurgen Klopp was absolutely correct that nobody would use the tragic death of Diogo Jota as an excuse for any poor form or bad performances; that's 100 per cent true and remains so. But from the outside looking in, how can anyone expect that team to perform at the same levels they did last year?
It could well be no coincidence that several players have looked better while appearing for their countries on international duty. Every time a player walks around the AXA, sits in the locker room, gets on the team bus to Anfield, sits down for a team meal, they're doing it without their friend. This season was always going to have a dark shadow over it.
Those who weren't here last season and didn't know Jota — the new signings of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong — are coming into a dressing room dealing with unimaginable grief.
While that's not me blaming their poor performances on the grief of the rest of the squad, it's more just offering up some context.
Isak simply hasn't been good enough; there's no debate about that. It's not Slot's fault, because the Swede going on strike in the summer essentially meant he came into Merseyside having not played any football in months. Now he's up to speed, he's running out of excuses for his performances.
Wirtz hasn't been anywhere near as bad as critics have said, and he's going to be a standout player for Liverpool for years to come. Frimpong has been injured, and Kerkez hasn't been great. So that's the big-money summer signings essentially unable to have any sort of impact on the team.
Slot taking over from Klopp was expected to come with a huge cooling-off period; his first season came with little to no expectations. But that he vastly overperformed in his first year shouldn't be a yardstick to use and beat him with this time around. Patience is needed.
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