Liverpool have won five of their opening seven Premier League matches this season and sit second, just a point behind Arsenal, as the October international break nears its end and with it a return to action against Manchester United set for Sunday for the reds.
It hasn’t been the worst start to 2025-26 for the defending Premier League champions, then, even if three defeats on the bounce—including a pair in the league—before the break has rather taken the shine off things and with it brought an increase
to nerves and uncertainty.
It’s also fair to note that while the results had been good up until those three losses, there have been warning signs. A press that doesn’t quite seem coordinated. An attack that hasn’t quite clicked. And generally just a lot of new players to try to fit into the system.
“I think it’s always been difficult when new players come in to adapt to the team,” was forward Cody Gakpo’s take on how the season has started for the Reds. “We have a lot of new players [and] sometimes it’s difficult when you change the team. We lost also a lot of players.
“We were together for a few good years now. So, some players left, Lucho [Luis Diaz], Darwin [Nunez], Jarell [Quansah], and Harvey [Elliott] as well. Then you have to replace them and new players come in and you need to make it fit. But I think that’s going well.”
On paper, at least, Liverpool have taken a champion side and improved it. But just because the transfer business looks good on balance on paper doesn’t mean it will simply work on the pitch, at least not from day one and not without a lot of hard work behind the scenes.
Two months into the season, though, seems like it might a reasonable timeline and target for getting this new look Liverpool side up to speed. Or perhaps it’s simply that, reasonable or not, it does rather feel like the Reds have run out of their proverbial runway.
If the goal this season is to win titles and trophies, coming out of the October break probably has to be when they click into gear and start playing like the side everyone thinks they can be—which is something we really haven’t seen from Liverpool since autumn of last season.
“We try to get to know each other every day better and better again,” Gakpo added. “But I think we will find a way forward. I think as a team this year we obviously want to defend the title. I think we have the squad for that as well, good players and a good team.
“We’d like to be better in the Champions League than last year. To be playing now in four competitions, our aim is to win four. That is the aim every season, but I think we have a good squad to compete on every front.”
