Liverpool headed into the 2025-26 season defending Premier League champions and consensus favourites to retain their crown. Eight games in now, any hopes of them doing so have largely faded after three league losses in a row, culminating with Sunday’s defeat at Anfield to Manchester United.
The problem isn’t so much the three defeats. It isn’t even a home loss against their historic rivals. It’s that even before that when they were winning, a side that had been heavily overhauled in the summer transfer window felt as though it was still figuring things out and far off from its best.
Former manager Jürgen Klopp, though, thinks it’s far too early for to be worried about this side or what current manager Arne Slot is trying to achieve. It’s tough to go from favourites to a potential top four fight, of course, but a heavily changed side was always going to take time to figure things out.
“Change always has an impact and change always needs time,” Klopp noted. “If he keeps the exact same team as last season, they start playing and have problems, it’s ‘we needed change.’ Now the new guys are there and they are really good players but it’s not working out at the minute.
“Development needs time. Nobody can change that. People need time to adapt. It’s all good. He got the best out of this team [last season] and they became champions in an incredible manner, so it’s not about Arne wants to show the world what he can do—it’s how to get the best out of this team.”
The hope for Liverpool will be that when this side finds its way—and hopefully it does that sooner rather than later—it is the kind of team that has proven it’s talented enough to go on long winning runs. It’s a strong core group augmented this past summer by some very impressive signings.
Meanwhile elsewhere, injuries and poor runs of form are always a risk for the league’s other title hopefuls. If Liverpool play the way they have the rest of the way they might have no chance, but we know this group and these new signings are good enough to play better than they have.
There’s room for frustration in that, but also perhaps for a sliver of hope. As for Klopp, he insists he’s still content not managing but doesn’t rule out an eventual return, noting “I love what I do right now and don’t miss coaching” but adding that in a year or two the situation could always change.