Picking Liverpool’s 2025-26 Flop of the Season

Yesterday we talked about which Liverpool players impressed fans most this season. The pickings were slim, with most agreeing the only real answer was industrious midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai and that the only real runner-up then was entertaining striker Hugo Ekitike.

With that out of the way, then, we’re on to trying to figure out which Liverpool player disappointed us the most this season. And whew lad are the pickings not slim on this side of the conversation.

That isn’t perhaps entirely fair to

the players, as when everybody is bad it’s probably less about the players and more about larger issues. Team construction by the sporting director and upper management, tactical choices by the head coach, and a general de-emphasis on team fitness have all clearly made things more difficult than they had to be and many of the players struggled as a result.

Still, mitigating reasons aside an awful lot of Liverpool players were pretty, pretty bad. So. Let’s get to it.

Alexander Isak

It’s not Alexander Isak’s fault he’s injury prone and spent more of the season injured than available. It’s not his fault he missed pre-season as Liverpool pushed to get his transfer across the line. And it’s not his fault Liverpool paid £100M+ to sign him after already getting Hugo Ekitike and left themselves recklessly thin at other positions.

So while none of that might be Isak’s fault, there’s simply no way to look at the £100M+ Liverpool spent on him and be happy about what the club got in return over the past 12 months.

Alexis Mac Allister

Over two seasons, Mac Allister seemed to have established himself as the successor to Gini Wijnaldum, the tireless and tactically astute jack-of-all-trades who arrived with more of an attacking profile and grew into the glue that held together Liverpool’s midfield.

In 2025-26 he wasn’t that. He lacked fitness, he lacked sharpness, he was often outshined by Curtis Jones, and when paired with consistently poor performances his tendency to dive and flop began to rankle.

Cody Gakpo

The degree to which Gakpo became the scapegoat for everything wrong with Liverpool’s attack was probably harsh on the Dutch winger, but the departure of Luis Diaz and a tactical shift to move Mohamed Salah further from goal put a real spotlight on Gakpo—and fans didn’t like what they saw.

In a team that too often slowed things down, nobody slowed things down more than Gakpo. In a team that was far too predictable on the ball, nobody was more predictable than Gakpo. Ignore the overlapping fullback, shift inside, and blast a shot into the first defender before jogging back to defend half-heartedly. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Giorgi Mamardashvili

Liverpool’s second choice goalkeeper was never the biggest problem when he played, but for a player bought two years ago as the succession plan to Alisson Becker the Georgian international looked shockingly unprepared.

Regularly pressed into service as the Reds’ number one dealt with up his usual injury injuries, probably nobody will now be feeling confident about a post-Alisson future.

Ibrahima Konaté

Konaté went through a lot in his personal life last season and for many that will earn him something of a pass, yet even when the French international seemed to have returned to something resembling his best form he remained the Liverpool defender most prone to a shockingly sloppy individual error.

A lack of midfield help and rotating cast of never-fit and stop-gap right backs didn’t make things easy, but as with everyone else on this list the fact there are mitigating factors doesn’t change the fact that Konaté was the opposite of good this season.