When one player is in bad form, it’s probably just one player in bad form. There may be any number of good and valid and understandable reasons, but it remains a problem of an individual. When every player is in bad form at the same time, though? When that happens, it’s hard to imagine it being an individual problem.
For Liverpool, 2025-26 has been a case of everyone being in bad form—or if not in outright bad form, at least still not looking their best. As a result, a season that started with talk
of a title defence has turned into a battle to stay in the top four. Which is disappointing for the fans and players like Alexis Mac Allister alike.
“There are not many chances of Liverpool retaining the title,” Mac Allister admitted in an interview with Sky Sports. “I hate to say it, but it is quite clear. Arsenal is in a really good moment, Manchester City is quite close, but we are not close in terms of performances or results so I do not see us becoming champions.
“It hurts because this should be a moment when we are enjoying the Premier League which we won and we should be in a much better place than we are. So it hurts, many things have changed from last season and it is not ideal, but that is the situation we are in and we have to face it and keep working to get better.”
Along with Mohamed Salah and centre half Ibrahima Konaté, Mac Allister is the player whose form has arguably fallen off most. Yet alongside Konaté, Virgil van Dijk hasn’t been his best and Milos Kerkez has yet to consistently impress. Alongside Salah, Cody Gakpo and new signing Alexander Isak have both struggled.
And alongside Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch hasn’t looked anything like the league’s top midfielder—which he arguably was last year. Everyone bar maybe Dominik Szoboszlai and new signing Hugo Ekitike has been playing, if not terribly, at least not at their best. And that’s well past it being an individual problem.
“Many things changed as I said,” he reiterated. “New players came in to replace those who left, we changed too many things, but I prefer to keep it to myself. It is quite clear we have amazing players, it is just about becoming a team, that is what we need. I feel like we all need to get better and that will raise our level.”
