From a fairly strong start to the 25/26 campaign, to a disastrous seven days, Arne Slot's Liverpool have been through one mighty rollercoaster ride during the early part of this season.
After winning their first seven matches in all competitions, the Reds looked on track to continue where last season had left off, as champions, with a hunger to maintain custody of their crown.
However, after three back-to-back away defeats against Crystal Palace and Chelsea in the Premier League and Galatasaray in the Champions League, is the title defence already starting to unravel for the Dutchman's champions?
The main question that will be on the minds of the LFC staff at the AXA training centre is what are the problems in this faltering Liverpool side and how can Slot and his team solve those issues, and quickly?
A plethora of new talent
When a club has a summer transfer window like Liverpool had, your instincts wouldn't initially think that signing of that calibre did would cause issues on the pitch.
With world class players like Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and more coming through the door, the immediate response would be that the Reds should be instantly improved by these top quality players.
However, when bringing in so many new signings that are intended to be first teamers, there can be an adjustment period, which could be what we are seeing at Anfield over the first couple of months of the season so far.
The fullbacks of the side have had a complete change, with Trent Alexander Arnold leaving and Andy Robertson's role in the squad reduced, the balance of the flanks has fully changed, with Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez coming is as the new personnel.
When replacing the likes of Alexander Arnold and Robertson, naturally it is going to take time to find the right balance on the wings, with Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo needing time to get used to their new partners out on the flanks, especially the Egyptian, who played with Alexander Arnold for eight seasons.
Expecting him to have the same creativity with Frimpong after just eight weeks is completely unrealistic, including the fact that the Dutchman has actually only started two Premier League matches so far, mainly due to a hamstring injury, but also getting used to the new league he is playing in.
The first big money man
Frimpong's fellow former Leverkusen teammate Wirtz has also been subject to criticism from the football community, following an inability to get a goal contribution so far this campaign.
The German racked up an impressive 30 goal contributions in 45 appearances for the Bundesliga side last season, yet hasn't been able to get off the mark so far in the Red of Liverpool, with ten appearances already under his belt.
But, when talking about Wirtz it's easy to forget that he is only 22-years-old and settling into a new league for the first time in his career, after coming through the youth academy system at Leverkusen.
So this experience is all new for the German, and with a £100 million plus price tag on his shoulders, there was always going to be pressure to perform and hope from rival fans that he was going to fail.
As for his performances on the pitch, there have been moments that have shown his class, some which could've got his goal contribution tally off the mark, like the potential assist against Chelsea, with a lovely backheel to Salah, who was unable to hit the target.
The 22-year-old has shown signs of what he is all about, flair on the ball and brilliant creative vision, however it just hasn't been apparent enough to warrant the numbers that the Kopites would've been hoping for, though it is only ten games in to his Liverpool career.
Roberto Firmino, Andy Robertson and Fabinho are all recent players that struggled at first under the weight of playing for the Merseyside club, who went on to have great careers with the Reds, so it is most certainly possible for the German to turn it around.
Even fellow teammate Ryan Gravenberch had a very stop-start first season, yet was completely reimagined in a Slot system and now is considered one of the best midfielders in the league and the world.
Where are the chances?
One of the main pleas that could be heard from the Liverpool fanbase last season was the teams need for a world class number nine.
In the title winning side from last year a large amount of the goals came from Salah, with the likes of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota all playing down the middle, yet failing to meet the numbers that would ideally be desired from a Premier League winning number nine.
Diaz had the best output out of the bunch, with 13 league goals, though some of those did come from his time over at left wing.
Even during the 19/20 Premier League winning season, Firmino, who played more as a false-nine than an out-and-out striker, chipped in with nine league goals, whilst having Sadio Mane on the left, who provided more than Gakpo does currently.
Though all these players contributed to last seasons title win they weren't what fans were looking for in that position, so Fenway Sports Group (FSG) delivered, bringing in two of the most high profile strikers on the market last summer, in Ekitike and Isak.
Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak were spotted bonding with each other in training 😂❤️ pic.twitter.com/d9mIcjnLBT
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) September 29, 2025
Now these two exciting strikers are in the ranks at Anfield another problem seems to have occurred. They aren't getting enough chances.
For all his critics one thing people could never deny is that Nunez was a chance magnet, it's just more often than not he was unable to convert the chances provided.
The Reds now have two strikers that can finishes the chances that the Uruguayan was given, yet the rest of the team isn't clicking in order to give these number nines the opportunities that they thrive on.
This probably goes back to another point made earlier and the fact that Slot's new side can sometimes be playing with at least four, maybe even five, new signings all playing at once, therefore suggesting that the team chemistry isn't quite at the level of last seasons team yet, understandably.
A prime example of this is the game away in Istanbul against Galatasaray, as Isak came on with 30 minutes left to play, and within that time on had four touches on the ball.
When you pay £125 million for a player, you probably hoping that they have more touches than four in half an hour!
This problem is probably the most vital to Slot's team getting back on track, and creating that fast flowing, exciting football that we saw last season, and this is the task that the staff at the AXA training ground have to solve if they want to defend their title.
Time to use Kerkez more
When describing Liverpool's season so far as a rollercoaster, no one fits that description more than left-back Kerkez.
The Hungarian hasn't had the easiest time so far in the colours of the champions, however that may not be all his own fault.
Under Andoni Iraola at Bournemouth, Kerkez was known as on of the most attacking fullbacks in the league, getting seven goal contributions in the stripes of the Cherries last campaign.
However, when you watch him play in a Liverpool system under Slot, you may notice him playing as the more defensive fullback, with the pattern being that the right sided player is the one who progresses more offensively up the field.
This feels like a waste of the Hungarian's best attributes, his ability to drive with the ball at speed and his desire to look up and play the cross, both similar traits to Robertson, especially when the Scotsman played under Jurgen Klopp.
Playing the 21-year-old as the defensive fullback really limits what he can do in an attacking sense, which is by far his biggest strength over defending.
In a team that has just lost the most creative right-back in the world and best crosser of the ball in Alexander Arnold and in a side that is lacking creativity and chances, putting Kerkez in a more advanced position and trying the right-back, whether than be Conor Bradley, Dominik Szoboszlai or Frimpong, in a deeper role surely deserves a try in order to see the Hungarian's greatest attribute unlocked.
A champion never forgotten
Despite all the new signings and changing in tactics, there is one event that is the hardest of all to recover from and that is the death of Diogo Jota.
When we watch football, we care about it so much that we sometimes forget how insignificant it is until something like this happens.
But also, we are reminded that these players aren't superhumans and they grieve too with the loss of a friend, which can take time and sometimes can never be gotten over.
The Liverpool dressing room is still a place in pain after the death of a teammate and a friend, and anyone that doesn't think this is a factor is in some of the performances so far this season is naïve.
For example, after the Chelsea match Virgil Van Dijk told ViaPlay: "It was always going to be a tough season, I’ve mentioned. Nobody said that it was going to be plain sailing whatsoever.
"It was always going to be ups and downs for multiple reasons that we shouldn’t forget, and all we have to do is stick together."
Another example was Salah's reaction after the opening game of the season against Bournemouth, with the emotion of what had happened evidently expressed on his face.
Mohamed Salah was in tears after Liverpool's 4-2 win over Bournemouth.
— Stan Sport Football (@StanSportFC) August 15, 2025
An emotional night at Anfield ❤️
↳ Premier League. Live & On Demand with 4K on Football’s New Home, Stan Sport. Stream now.#StanSportAU #PremierLeague pic.twitter.com/4DXgoPFzOG
The balance of been expected to perform at your best in front of the world, whilst also trying to mourn a passed friend must be extremely tough, and Reds fans from all around the world will surely understand that and give their side time to come together on the pitch when they are ready.
With all these problems facing the manager and his staff the question is, will they be able to turn things around quickly enough to still be in a title race, or will the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City already be too far gone?
