The Liverpool Offside 2025-26 Season Preview, Part 3: Expectations and Predictions
Nobody really expected Liverpool to win the Premier League in 2024-25, never mind for them to cruise to the title the way they did. But having done so means Arne Slot’s Reds now head into 2025-26 as consensus favourites to defend that title. There will also be widespread expectations for Liverpool to do better in the domestic cups and to go deeper in the Champions League.
Are those kinds of expectations fair, though? If they aren’t, what should Liverpool fans be heading into 2025-26 expecting and
hoping for? After a season in which the Reds won their twentieth domestic league title and climbed back up on their perch, it’s fair to ask if anything less than successfully defending that is going to satisfy. And if that’s the target, which players will have to step up to make it happen—and are we concerned any will stumble in year two of the Slot Era?
Noel
There’s a part of me that thinks nothing good can come of being favourites. Which is perhaps a little odd since, when I think about it, pre-season favourite isn’t really a place Liverpool have typically found themselves. Even at the club’s high points under Jürgen Klopp, there was always Manchester City looming, all primordial terror and dread, a gargantuan eldritch sportswashing horror lurking out there beneath the waves how the hell is anyone laughing and smiling and building sandcastles with their children when it’s out there we all know it’s lurking out there, don’t we?
It might be all those times we’ve hit Christmas or the new year or the season’s half-way point in first and then failed. Been overtaken. Usually in recent by City. Once upon a time it was Man United doing it. Regardless, as a Liverpool fan, that’s my only real experience of being favourites. The no team first at this point in the season has failed to go on to win the title… and then not going on to win the title experience. It can be a little scarring.
All of which is rather a long way of getting back around to the idea that, on paper at least and assuming the necessary centre half and striker reinforcements arrive before the transfer window slams shut, Liverpool are favourites. Deserve to be. Cup competitions, domestic or in Europe, can have a touch of luck to them. Injuries and form. The right draw in the knockouts. The ball is round—and in any one game it can bounce in some very, very odd ways. So all I can really, reasonably hope for in the cups and in the Champions League is that Liverpool give a good account. That they’re in the mix and give themselves a chance.
Over a 38 game league season, though, quality does tend to win out. And on paper, assuming they finish their transfer business as expected, Liverpool are the Premier League side with the most quality. Nothing good can come of that. Something very, very good might come of that.
Dexian
With a host of reinforcements, Man City going through a big rebuild, and Arsenal still looking rather Saka-reliant, Liverpool should go into this season as Premier League favourites. Fans will likely be hoping for a deeper run in Europe and a domestic cup win as a bonus.
This Liverpool squad, assuming the gaps of another attacker and centre half are filled, is deep. However, Ryan Gravenberch still doesn’t look like he has a proper deputy for the six. Trey Nyonyi looks like he’s being groomed for that role long-term from what we’ve seen in preseason, and he looks the part already in terms of technique and instincts. Still, there’s also the matter of letting the kid grow into his body and not pushing him too hard while he’s still developing physically. Let’s hope with Szoboslai being available for more minutes deeper in midfield, and Mac Allister and Jones as options as well, that we can cobble together enough minutes at that position when Ryan isn’t available. Maybe Slot will even trust Endo with more time after what seemed like a growing realisation of how important he can be as a closer towards the end of last season.
Jordan
I don’t want to be the killjoy but honestly whatever we win will be a treat. I was so happy to be wrong last season when I said my expectations were top four and we ended up being champions. It’s the trauma of being a Child of the Hodgpocalypse telling me to always keep my expectations low because then when things do go well, I can be pleasantly surprised.
Do I think this newly invigorated lineup is going to dog walk the league and the Champions League? No, probably not. I’d love to see it, of course. I’d love to see the kind of mastery we’ve always dreamt of, especially as it appears that Liverpool are building more than just a top quality starting XI, with a full squad that can hopefully be used interchangeably as much as the 2019 and 2020 squads. Is this finally the quadruple season it’s felt like we’ve been chasing since Klopp came and made us good again? I truly hope so but realistically don’t think so.
I mean no one, including me, really expected us to win the league last season. And even with the league win and how dominant we looked for long stretches, that performance in the Carabao Cup final last season was pretty dire and pretty devastating, a reflection both of our labours catching up to us and the odd one-off results cup football can spit out.
The season is going to be long. Four competitions, including a 38 match league campaign and likely 60+ overall, is a lot of football. I hope Slot can give his key players more rest, even if they’ll be telling him they want to play every minute. I hope we look like we did last autumn, from start to finish the best team in Europe. I hope we win everything, but I’m trying to make sure I’ll be okay if in the end it’s more a dogfight and surviving.
Gabe
Winning back to back titles is hard, especially if you’re not backed by a sportswashing petrostate that lets you build a squad three players deep at every position. I think there is certainly the talent for Liverpool to repeat as Premier League champions, but a high amount of turnover this summer will likely cause some bumps early in the season as players get settled in and figure out the nuances. I do think/hope that Slot will have more trust in the depth of the squad this year, at least, and will rotate more frequently in key areas like midfield. I’ll feel much better if we can get the expected centre half signings across the line and at least one more attacker.
Manchester City have undergone another face lift and will likely take steps forward from last year, Arsenal will be strong defensively as always and may figure out how to score enough goals to be competitive, and Chelsea have a large collection of young talent that may or may not come together in any sort of consistent manner. Liverpool likely are the favourites to repeat, but I think being part of a strong title challenge is realistic expectation. I do hope to see a much deeper run in the Champions League and a chance at one of the domestic cups as well.
Zach
Expectations are a funny thing. We see it every season, as pundits land on the safe choice: whoever the fuck won the last league title. Despite a strong third place finish in 2023-24, one in which Liverpool were at the top of the table for long stretches of the season, no pundits picked them to make the step up last year—and some even predicted finishing outside of Champions League places. We know how those predictions turned out.
Now the shoe is on the other foot, and Liverpool are everyone’s safe bet to retain the title and getting good odds to go all the way in the Champions League as well. However, just because it’s a safe choice, doesn’t mean it’s the wrong one. City were never convincing last season, and along with being in the midst of a rebuild now had the additional complication of having to navigate FIFA’s money grab Club World Cup earlier this summer. And under Arteta, Arsenal have been a case of perpetual promise but never managing to convince over the course of an entire season.
If Liverpool are to fall short of expectation in either the Premier League or Champions League, I’d expect it to be because of a slow start to the season while the new team gels, or to be a case of bad luck with injuries or draws from the footballing gods. For example, Alex Fergusson’s supposedly entirely random Premier League scheduling computer was not especially kind to The Reds to start the season (the scheduling computer also appears to hate Arsenal, so at least there’s that). But if we can navigate a potentially bumpy start and still be within touching distance, I’d expect us to look up to the challenge of retaining our league title and then some.
