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It is too soon to rule Liverpool out of the Premier League title race this season but by Christmas, we should have a better idea of where Arne Slot's ambitions may lie in 2026.
That is the view of the former Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke. "I wouldn't want to write off Liverpool," the Trinidad and Tobago head coach told Snabbare this week. "I still think they have got so much quality in their ranks.
"They just haven't somehow seemed to put it together of late. History shows that they can recover, but it would need an incredible response from their players to turn this around now.
"I'll wait and see on Liverpool. Usually, you give a team until Christmas. That’s about the time you need to look at a challenger before you write them off."
Before Christmas, Liverpool will play Nottingham Forest, West Ham, Sunderland, Leeds United, Brighton, and Tottenham. It then has Wolves, Leeds again, and Fulham before a trip to Arsenal early in January.
"Liverpool almost looked flawless last year, didn’t they? The fall off has been mind-boggling," Yorke continued. "With the whole saga around Alexander Isak in the summer, everyone thought once he joined the team, they would be even stronger.
"I think the whole football fraternity was fooled by Liverpool’s business in the summer. It shows the reason why people love this sport because it’s so hard to predict."
Before the international break, Liverpool played well against Aston Villa and Real Madrid, but then looked jaded at Manchester City.
"The last thing I should speak about now is the title race," Arne Slot admitted in his post-match press conference after losing 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium.
"We should first focus on getting results — result after result after result — before we can even think about that, and the reality is that we are eighth now. One team is quite far ahead, although City are four points away from Arsenal.
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"The rest is quite close and I said last season many times, even when we were leading in the beginning, the best way to judge the league table is of course after 38 [games].
"The next best thing is to judge it after 19 games because then you’ve all faced the same opponents.
"Our first focus should be on getting results, and the last thing we should focus on is the title race, which is something we could do last season, but also not the previous two seasons before. But we need to improve, and that’s obvious."
Liverpool.com says: The next period is going to be vital for the Reds. Slot's side should be looking to get into a winning groove again and if it does, Arsenal and Manchester City have harder fixtures coming up where they could drop points.
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