The World Cup is always great, but if you’re anything like me, the most enjoyable aspect is soaking up the subplots connected to your club.

We’re almost one week in and there has already been plenty for Liverpool supporters to delve into. From potential transfer targets to brilliant performances from the Reds’ own players, it has been fascinating.

Liverpool Stars Shine

After a disastrous club campaign, the World Cup has offered several Liverpool players the chance to reset, refocus and remind people of their quality.

Alisson Becker was the first Red in action in Brazil’s 1-1 draw with Morocco. Despite his return to full fitness, he was beaten by a brilliant finish from Bayern Munich bound Ismael Saibari. There was little he could do about the goal, but the key point for Liverpool was that Alisson was fit again and playing on the biggest stage.

Sunday then saw Andy Robertson, still technically a Liverpool player, captain Scotland to a 1-0 win over Haiti in their opening game. Scotland needed control, experience and authority, and Robertson gave them exactly that.

Later that evening, Florian Wirtz starred in Germany’s 7-1 win over Curacao. Despite only managing one assist, his performance was so much more than that. His touch, movement and imagination were all on display, with the ball seemingly glued to his boots at times. His work rate was brilliant too, and that is slowly becoming a hugely underrated part of his game. Liverpool supporters will have noticed that.

The Netherlands then took to the stage in their 2-2 draw with Japan. Captain Virgil van Dijk scored the opener, assisted by Ryan Gravenberch. It was the first time that two Liverpool players had combined for a World Cup goal since 1966, which is some little piece of history.

Gravenberch turned provider again for the Netherlands’ second goal, when Crysencio Summerville curled home a brilliant effort. The midfielder was simply excellent. He carried himself with confidence, moved the ball cleanly and looked like a player ready to take on more responsibility. Cody Gakpo also featured but continued his lacklustre form.

Yesterday morning saw Alexander Isak shine. With one of the performances of the tournament so far, Isak scored a brilliant solo goal before creating two more in Sweden’s 5-1 win over Tunisia. His balance, pace and composure were frightening at times.

Then Mohamed Salah led Egypt into battle against Belgium. The Egyptian King notched an assist in the 1-1 draw, which is a solid result for the African side.

Liverpool Transfer Watch

One of the highlights of the week was watching Yan Diomande shine for Ivory Coast. The 19-year-old RB Leipzig forward has been heavily linked with a move to Anfield and he certainly did not disappoint.

He was the standout performer in Ivory Coast’s 1-0 win over Ecuador. In the first half, he was deployed off the right and came face to face with Arsenal defender Piero Hincapie. Diomande won almost every battle with ease.

The second half showcased his versatility, as he dominated from the left wing too. That matters for Liverpool. They need forwards who can stretch teams, beat defenders and operate across the front line. Diomande looks fearless and has the profile of an absolute star in the making.

Another youngster who shone was Ayyoub Bouaddi. The 18 year old Moroccan midfielder dominated large parts of the pitch in their 1-1 draw with Brazil.

He is expected to leave Lille this summer. Liverpool have already held talks with the player on numerous occasions, but face major competition from Arsenal and PSG. That alone tells you the level of talent being discussed. Bouaddi plays with calmness, intelligence and maturity beyond his age. This could be one to keep an eye on as Liverpool weigh up their midfield options this summer.

If I was to say the name Abbosek Fayzullayev, eyebrows would be raised. However, Liverpool will reportedly be scouting the 22-year-old attacker in Uzbekistan’s opener against Colombia on Thursday morning.

Fayzullayev currently plays for Basaksehir in Turkey. Whatever you think about the player or the link, these little stories are what the World Cup is all about. It would be some audition for the forward, and tournaments have a habit of turning unknown names into major talking points very quickly.

In terms of other options, PSG forward Bradley Barcola has also been linked. The 23-year-old is expected to feature in France’s opener against Senegal tonight. Rumours around the versatile forward are brewing, and many Liverpool supporters will be keen to get another glimpse of him.

Barcola has the sort of profile that naturally attracts attention. He can play wide, he carries the ball at speed and he offers a different kind of threat in the final third.

This is the beauty of the World Cup. It gives supporters fresh hope, fresh arguments and fresh names to obsess over. For Liverpool, week one has already delivered plenty.

Liverpool have not only identified another midfield target in Lille’s Ayyoub Bouaddi, but they have already held talks with him according to Fabrizio Romano.

The 18 year old’s performance in Morocco’s opening 1-1 draw with Brazil at the World Cup has caught the eye of global football.

In a game filled with Champions League and Premier League talent, he stood out above the rest.

But what kind of player would Liverpool be getting in Bouaddi?

Read more

Midfield is an area where Liverpool are going to have to strengthen this summer. There’s simply no doubt about that.

The club cannot afford to neglect the build-up issues that the Reds have struggled with last season under Arne Slot.

At the same time, Andoni Iraola’s system is going to require more intensity and players making bold and quick decisions.

It’s why Adam Wharton seems like an ideal fit. He is an excellent player to have in the build-up and he also regularly takes a lot of risks on the ball that end-up having a high reward for his side.

Wharton is a fantastic player. But then you hear the rumours of a £100m price tag and you start to think perhaps Liverpool would be better off exploring alternatives.

Given the need to invest in a lot of areas throughout the squad and having to spend already in excess of likely £100m for Yan Diomande, Liverpool may just have to be a little bit more conversative with their spending for a midfielder.

So, who could they go for? Well, there’s an obvious alternative who is in the prime of his career and who profiles very similarly to Wharton.

Read more

I have looked closely at Bazoumana Toure’s numbers and footage, and he stands out immediately because his profile is clearly defined. Unlike many young players, there is very little ambiguity about what he does on the pitch.

Across roughly two thousand minutes, primarily from the left wing, he has produced seven assists and one goal. At first glance, that goal return may appear modest, but it aligns with his role. He is not operating as a primary scorer, his function is to create.

The most striking number is his crossing volume. He has registered eighty seven crosses in the Bundesliga. That places him among the more active wide creators in the league. When combined with his expected assist output and shot assist data, it becomes clear that his game revolves around supplying others.

His player impact rating sits around seventy two percentile, which is strong for a player of his age and experience. More importantly, his creative metrics are consistently high. He contributes through passing threat, expected assists, and final third involvement.

This is not a winger who drifts inside looking for shots. His shot involvement numbers are relatively low, and that reflects both his positioning and team structure. Instead, he focuses on getting into wide areas and delivering into the box, as can be seen in the image below.

Read more

Andoni Iraola is Liverpool’s new head-coach and naturally reports are already emerging about the Reds signing some of his former players at Bournemouth.

From Rayan to Alex Scott and even Eli Junior Kroupi. It certainly wouldn’t be a surprise to see one of the aforementioned trio arrive. However, when it comes to Kroupi, maybe Liverpool don’t have fork out big money to sign him.

Instead, Iraola might have his very own version of his former attacker hiding within Liverpool’s academy.

One of the most notable aspects of Iraola’s opening interview as the head-coach of the club was the mention of how he’s looking forward to working with the club’s younger players during pre-season while the seniors are away on international duty at the World Cup.

It’s a stark contrast from Arne Slot, who showed little interest in the academy.

Andoni Iraola could hand Liverpool youngsters a major pre-season chance

Iraola is going to take a different approach and that is going to be a huge opportunity for some of the club’s younger players to make their mark.

Among them will be one of Liverpool’s most impressive young academy stars from last season – Joshua Sonni-Lambie.

Read more

Since Saturday, when Liverpool moved on from Arne Slot and Andoni Iraola was almost immediately placed at the front of the queue, I have spent far too many hours trying to catch up. Reading, watching, asking, listening, and trying to work out whether this was a smart idea or simply a fashionable one.

I should be honest. I had been arguing for a change from Slot for months, but I had not given enough thought to the identity of his replacement. I had written about Luis Enrique, Xabi Alonso, Simone Inzaghi and Sebastian Hoeness. Iraola barely entered my thinking until his Bournemouth exit was announced in April. Even then, my instinct was that he probably needed to prove himself at a bigger club before Liverpool became a realistic conversation.

After looking deeper, I would now be disappointed if Liverpool appointed anyone else.

Basque Roots and Football Education

Iraola’s story begins in the Basque Country, a place where football is rarely treated as decoration. It is identity, argument, pride and education. Born in Usurbil in 1982, he came through the Athletic Club system, which carries its own demands. Athletic Bilbao do not merely produce players, they test whether players can belong to something narrower, fiercer and more exacting than most clubs in Europe.

That matters when considering Iraola now. He was not shaped in a soft footballing environment. His career was built on repetition, discipline and responsibility. As a right back, he learned the game from the touchline, where the whole pitch opens sideways, and decisions have to be made with danger both ahead and behind.

Athletic Bilbao Years

Iraola spent the bulk of his playing career with Athletic Bilbao, making more than 500 appearances in all competitions. That kind of longevity says something beyond fitness or talent. It speaks to trust. Managers trusted him, teammates trusted him, and supporters trusted him.

Read more

Ibrahima Konaté’s Liverpool exit has the strange feel of something both inevitable and still faintly absurd. For months, the logic pointed one way. A player in his peak years does not usually allow a contract to dilute down to almost nothing and then suddenly reach for the pen. At elite level, that kind of delay normally means leverage, appetite for the open market, or both.

That was why Konaté’s comments after the Merseyside derby landed with such force. He spoke as though he expected to stay, said Liverpool meant a great deal to him, and talked like a man ready to inherit responsibility from departing legends. For a short while, it was possible to wonder whether everyone had misread the room.

As it turned out, the room had been read perfectly well all along.

His farewell post was warm, emotional and hard to dismiss. Konaté wrote of Liverpool with affection, mentioned the pain around Diogo Jota, and spoke movingly about the death of his father. Nobody should strip the humanity from this. Konaté gave Liverpool five years, 183 appearances, trophies, power, personality and some enormous performances.

Yet Liverpool have lost a 27 year old centre back on a free transfer. That sentence alone should sting inside the club.

Subscribe now

Konaté Exit Was Coming

Konaté leaves behind a Liverpool career that resists neat judgement. There were nights when he looked like a centre back built for the modern game. Paris in 2022 remains the obvious example. Liverpool lost the Champions League final, yet Konaté was immense. Quick across the grass, brutal in contact, calm enough to carry the ball into pressure, he looked like a player whose ceiling touched the roof of Europe.

That first season told Liverpool what they had bought from RB Leipzig for £36m. They had waited for him and found a defender who could make the pitch feel like a private training ground. At his best alongside Virgil van Dijk, there was a bouncer-like quality to the pair of them. The opposition could see the door. They were not getting through it.

The frustration is that his best never became the weekly condition. He could look world-class, then spend too long appearing like a player waiting for the world-class version of himself to report for duty. Injuries interrupted earlier seasons. Form dipped at awkward times. This season, when the contract issue was reaching its final stage, the timing could hardly have been worse.

That matters. Konaté clearly placed a higher value on his skill set than Liverpool’s decision makers were prepared to place on his output. In pure ability terms, he had a case. In terms of consistency, Liverpool had one too.

Wage Structure Meets Main Character Syndrome

I have written before that Konaté has a touch of main character syndrome. Some of it has always looked harmless enough, even funny at times. The complaints over Man of the Match awards, the social presence, the sense that he understood his own theatre. There is nothing wrong with personality in a dressing room. Liverpool need characters. The difficulty comes when self-assessment reaches the negotiating table. Konaté seems to see himself as a top-tier Liverpool player. On certain afternoons, he is right. Over a season, the evidence becomes harder to sustain.

That is where Richard Hughes and Liverpool’s football operation have drawn their line. Konaté reportedly earned around £150,000 a week and wanted a significant rise. In isolation, that request does not sound outrageous for a starting international centre-back who helped win the Premier League in 2024/25. Viewed against the reported contracts given to Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch, you can see why Konaté’s camp would ask the question.

If others in the 24 to 28 age bracket are moving toward the upper reaches of the wage structure, why should he stand still?

That, I suspect, is where Liverpool decided the slope had become too steep. They were not prepared to move every prime-age player into the richest bracket because one or two deals had already shifted the market inside the club. Konaté became the point at which the club stopped bending.

It may prove sensible in the long run. Wage structures are not abstract spreadsheets. They shape dressing rooms. Give one inconsistent performer elite money and the next conversation starts higher. Curtis Jones has a good season, Dominik Szoboszlai’s agent phones, another player points across the room. Konaté may be the final trigger rather than the original problem.

Centre Back Void Cannot Be Ignored

None of that makes this painless. Liverpool have still allowed a valuable centre back to walk away for nothing. That continues a worrying pattern, even when every individual case has its own explanation. Supporters are entitled to ask how a club built on sustainable decision making keeps arriving at situations where saleable assets reach the door without a fee attached.

It is too easy to say they should have sold him last summer. That only works if a buyer was ready, Konaté was willing to go, and Liverpool had a replacement prepared. Football is full of solutions that exist only after the danger has passed. Keeping him helped maintain a title winning squad. Nobody complained about that while the medal was being polished.

The issue is what happens now.

Liverpool cannot start next season with Van Dijk at 35, Joe Gomez and his injury record, plus Giovanni Leoni and Jeremy Jacquet as the supporting cast. Leoni is returning from an ACL injury and has not played Premier League football. Jacquet is talented, expensive and highly rated, yet also new to England and coming back from a significant injury. That is not a title challenge platform. It is a dice roll.

Van Dijk remains magnificent, although even magnificence needs help. Liverpool have already lost Salah and Robertson. They have lost know-how, voice, authority and the small daily standards that keep a training ground honest. Konaté was a senior figure, a big presence, and somebody who had lived the pressure of finals, title races and Anfield expectation.

Share

Lacroix Fits Liverpool’s Next Move

If Andoni Iraola becomes Liverpool manager, the centre back question grows even sharper. His football asks defenders to handle space, aggression and uncomfortable moments. It needs pace, nerve and recovery power. That cannot be left to hope.

If there is still a window to call Marcos Senesi before Spurs close the deal, Liverpool should at least know the answer. He has Premier League experience, left-footed balance and familiarity with Iraola’s demands. The concern would be mobility on a side that may need to defend large spaces, yet he would bring know-how straight away.

Maxence Lacroix may be the smarter play. I wrote about him last week and still think he carries many of the tools Liverpool should be hunting. He has speed, athletic reach, front-foot defending, and the profile to work beside Van Dijk now, then form part of the next version of the back line after Van Dijk goes. Palace will not make it easy, and nor should they, yet Liverpool are beyond the stage where cleverness can become delay.

This is the danger with trying to be the smartest club in the room. Sometimes the smart move is restraint. Sometimes it is recognising that the void in front of you is too large to explain away with projections and promise.

Konaté was not worth any price. Liverpool were right to resist being dragged into a wage bracket they did not believe he had earned. Still, walking away from him creates a serious obligation. Hughes has protected the wage structure. Now he has to protect the team.

That means signing a centre back ready for Premier League football, not another prospect wrapped in future tense. Liverpool can live without Konaté. They cannot live with pretending his departure has not opened a hole.

Leave a comment

Liverpool have finally sacked Arne Slot.

From the outside looking in, it may seem harsh. A Premier League title in his debut season, followed by Champions League qualification in his second. Knocked out by the eventual winners, PSG, in both European campaigns. On paper, that is hardly the record of a manager who has failed beyond repair.

However, on the inside, it is far from harsh. Of course, it is sad. It is a person losing their job at the end of the day, and Slot will always deserve respect for being one of only two managers to bring a league title to Anfield in the past 35 years. That should never be ignored, reduced or rewritten.

But sentiment cannot cloud reality. It is impossible not to admit that the evidence stacked firmly against the Dutchman this season. Liverpool looked like a side drifting away from its own standards, and once that happens at Anfield, change becomes necessary.

So why did Liverpool sack Arne Slot?

On the Pitch

After a record breaking spend in the region of £450m, expectations were high for the reigning champions. This was meant to be the next step, the moment where a title winning platform became something stronger, deeper and more sustainable but the end result was very different.

Liverpool broke the record for the most defeats in a single season by a Reds side, with 20 losses across all competitions. That statistic alone is brutal enough, but the detail makes it even worse. A quarter of those defeats came by three or more goals, including heavy losses against sides such as PSV, Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace.

For a club built on pride, resilience and the refusal to accept humiliation, that mattered. Liverpool can lose. Every great side does. But the manner of those defeats was alarming. Too often, they were not narrow setbacks or moments of misfortune. They were collapses. They were games where Liverpool looked passive, exposed and strangely resigned to their fate.

The 60 points accrued in the Premier League was the joint lowest tally to secure Champions League qualification in Premier League history, tied with Liverpool’s own side of 2004. Qualification for Europe’s elite competition may have been achieved, but they truly limped over the line.

Another daunting aspect was just how quickly the capitulation arrived while rivals were strengthening. Last season, Liverpool finished 42 points ahead of Manchester United. Fast forward one year, and the Reds finished 11 points behind their biggest rivals. That is a swing of enormous proportions, and for Liverpool supporters, it was simply unacceptable.

Liverpool have had poor seasons in the past. Even under Jurgen Klopp, campaigns such as 2020-21 and 2022-23 were disappointing. But the answers were clear. Injuries ravaged one season. A side that had gone well past its expiry date damaged another. Supporters could see the problem, understand the context and believe in the solution.

Slot would have had people believe this was the case again, but it was not. This was not a tired squad reaching the end. This was a heavily refreshed, heavily backed group that looked disjointed and uncertain. It was a team with no clear identity or direction, led by a coach who simply could not be trusted with another phase.

Style of Play

The style of play became a major issue.

Liverpool were slow, passive and weak. The word “boring” became attached to performances by many supporters, even at Anfield. That in itself tells a story. Liverpool fans will tolerate a lot if they feel there is purpose and a belief in what they’re trying to do. What they struggle to accept is a team that looks void of confidence and ideas.

That is a dangerous place for any Liverpool manager to find himself. Anfield has always demanded more than results. It demands energy and a side that looks like it belongs to the city and the shirt.

Slot’s Liverpool too often looked disconnected from that. The tempo was flat, the pressing was almost non-existent and the attacking play lacked consistent patterns. There were matches where individual quality dragged Liverpool through, but there were too few occasions where the system itself appeared to elevate the team.

That was one of the biggest reasons the club had to act. A manager can survive bad results if supporters can see an idea. They can survive criticism if performances suggest something is building. But once the football becomes slow and uninspiring, the ground starts to move beneath him.

Defensive Collapse

Defensively, Liverpool were all over the place.

The numbers were damning. Slot’s side conceded 78 goals across all competitions, with 53 coming in the Premier League alone. For a team that wanted to compete at the highest level, that was nowhere near good enough.

There were structural problems everywhere. The distances between defence and midfield were too big. Full backs were exposed. Centre backs were dragged into uncomfortable areas. The midfield often looked caught between pressing and protecting. Opponents found space too easily, carried the ball too easily and created chances too regularly.

Whilst there was plenty of individual mistakes across the season, the system that did not protect its players properly.

The concern was not merely that goals were being conceded. It was that the same types of goals were being conceded again and again. That points to a coaching issue and Slot never found a convincing answer.

New Signings

The handling of Liverpool’s new signings was another major problem.

Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez arrived with clear qualities, but Slot failed to use either effectively. Both players had attributes that should have added energy, width and dynamism, yet neither looked consistently comfortable within the structure of the team.

Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak arrived for record breaking sums, but Slot simply had no clear idea how to use them. They were statement signings, players meant to shape the next version of Liverpool. Instead, they became a symbol of the confusion surrounding Slot’s side.

Wirtz, in particular, needed a defined role and rhythm. He is a player who thrives on connections, movement and attacking relationships. Liverpool never truly built that platform for him. Isak, meanwhile, required service, space and a team capable of creating high quality chances. Too often, when fit, he was left feeding on scraps or drifting into areas where his threat was reduced.

Hugo Ekitike was a success, and that should be acknowledged. But it is hard to deny that much of his impact came from individual talent rather than systemic clarity. He produced moments, he offered quality, and he gave supporters something to cling to, but it rarely felt like part of a wider attacking machine.

It was not just the new signings either. Slot’s failure to improve players during his time at the club became a major worry. Ryan Gravenberch would be the obvious exception, although even he struggled this season. Beyond that, it is hard to point to a long list of players who became clearly better under Slot’s coaching.

One slight positive was Slot’s handling of 17 year old Rio Ngumoha, who was integrated nicely into the first team setup. That showed there was at least some willingness to trust youth when the talent demanded it.

Off the Pitch

The problems ran far deeper than the pitch.

Slot received major backlash over the lack of intensity in his coaching. More days off, more holidays and less intense training sessions became a growing talking point. Performances appeared to reflect that drop in edge.

Only Chelsea and West Ham United covered less distance than Liverpool this season. That is an extraordinary statistic for a club whose modern success was built on intensity.

Distance covered is not everything in football, of course. Running without intelligence is just noise. But when a team looks passive and the numbers suggest it is not working as hard as its rivals, the criticism becomes difficult to dismiss.

Figures close to the academy setup at Liverpool have also revealed discomfort with the lack of attention paid by Slot towards the club outside the first team.

A Liverpool manager has to understand the whole institution. The academy, the supporters, the staff, the city, the history, they all matter. Slot, by the end, looked increasingly detached from those wider details.

Man Management

Slot’s man management became one of the biggest talking points, and it was not restricted to this season.

Go back to last year, and he was ruthless with youngsters such as Jarell Quansah and Harvey Elliott. He had issues with Darwin Nunez too. Those situations were noted at the time, but winning covers tension. Once results fall away, those moments are reexamined.

This season, his stand off with Mohamed Salah stole the headlines and ran right until the end of the campaign. Questioning the standards being set by the player who had been the main focal point behind his Premier League title success was always going to raise eyebrows.

That is without mentioning the lack of common sense in picking fights with a player who was heading out of the door in two weeks regardless. Salah’s departure was already emotional enough for supporters. Turning it into another public fault line only made Slot look more isolated.

Academy graduate Curtis Jones was pushed aside despite the team’s struggles and now sees his future elsewhere.

Slight jibes at the likes of Calvin Ramsay and Freddie Woodman did not go unnoticed either. Individually, those comments may not seem decisive. Collectively, they helped build a picture of a manager who struggled to maintain warmth, trust and unity within the group.

Supporter Mood

Slot had completely lost the support of the majority of the fanbase by the end of the season.

Boos were heard at Anfield on multiple occasions in the latter stages of the campaign, and once that happens at this club, it is incredibly hard to come back from. Liverpool supporters are not naturally inclined to turn quickly on managers, especially those who have delivered major trophies. But when faith disappears, it is for a reason.

The frustration was not just about results. It was about what people were watching. It was about a team that looked flat, predictable and short of belief. It was about expensive signings looking underused, established players looking confused and supporters wondering where the next genuine performance was coming from.

Anfield can be patient when it feels involved in a journey. It can endure pain when there is a sense of direction. But this was just a clear decline and the decision became inevitable.

Overall Thoughts

With all of that being said, Slot is a title-winning head coach. Respect is more than due. He gave Liverpool a remarkable first season, kept momentum going after the departure of Jurgen Klopp and delivered a league title when many feared the club might stumble badly during transition.

That cannot be forgotten.

But it is also hard to deny that he failed heavily in making the side his own. The landslide that started back in September was never really halted, other than an underwhelming 13 game unbeaten streak that included draws against the likes of Burnley and Leeds United.

Ultimately, Slot was a great appointment for one specific moment. He steadied Liverpool after Klopp, inherited a strong side and helped push it to glory. The decision to stick with him until the end of the season proved to be the right one, just. Liverpool secured Champions League football and avoided the chaos of a mid season change.

But now, the decision to part ways is also correct.

Liverpool need a new energy. They needed a manager who could take a lavishly backed squad and give it shape, edge and belief. Slot could no longer offer that.

He leaves with a league title, and that secures his place in Liverpool history. But he also leaves because the evidence became overwhelming. The football had gone stale, the defence had collapsed, the new signings were not being maximised, the dressing room looked fractured and the supporters had lost faith.

So now, a new era begins…

There are moments as a Liverpool fan when you can feel the mood of the club shift before anyone at the club says a word. This was one of them.

For months, the official noise around Arne Slot suggested patience. Stick with him. Trust the process. Look at the title he won in 2024/25. Respect the achievement. Give him time. I understood why some wanted to believe that, because winning the Premier League in your first season at Liverpool is not a small thing. Slot will always have that on his record, and nobody can take it away from him.

Yet football does not wait around for gratitude to become a plan.

A few of us at Anfield Index did not buy the briefings. We did not believe Liverpool could look at what was happening on the pitch, run the numbers, assess the mood around the squad, listen to the stadium, and still conclude that this could carry on into another season.

We stuck to our task because the evidence was screaming at everyone. The performances had collapsed. The data was awful. The toxicity was at the highest level. There were zero positives left.

So when Arne Slot was sacked yesterday, my first reaction was relief. Not joy at someone losing their job, because that part is never nice. Relief that Liverpool had finally acted like Liverpool again.

Why Liverpool Had To Sack Arne Slot

The temptation after any sacking is to make it sound simple. Slot was good, then he was bad. That is not quite right.

He did a very good job in his first season. He inherited a squad capable of winning, yes, but he still had to guide it over the line. He made tweaks. He created calm after Jürgen Klopp’s emotional farewell. He helped Mohamed Salah produce another elite season. Liverpool won the league, and Slot deserves credit for that.

Read more

Arne Slot leaves Liverpool as a Premier League-winning manager. That matters. It will always matter. In time, when some of the noise has burned itself out, his name will still sit beside a league title, the twentieth in the club’s history, won in his first season after taking on the impossible task of following Jurgen Klopp.

That achievement deserves respect, gratitude and a proper place in Liverpool’s story.

Hiring him was the correct decision because he delivered the biggest prize in English football. Sacking him is also the correct decision because the evidence had become impossible to ignore. Liverpool had lost their way. Not in one bad week, not in one poor run, not because of one angry crowd or one social media storm, but rather through a long, draining collapse of identity, conviction and belief.

For me, the only serious criticism now is that Liverpool waited too long.

Arne Slot Exit Was Inevitable

Liverpool should have acted as soon as it became clear Slot could not turn this around, and for me that point came towards the end of 2025.

By then, the signs were not vague. They were written across every slow passage of play, every flat home performance, every game where Liverpool looked like a team wearing the shirt without carrying the force that should come with it. The defeats were damaging enough, although the number alone told its own story. What mattered more was the feel of it. Liverpool became easy to watch in the worst possible way, predictable, passive and strangely bloodless.

That is fatal at Anfield.

There are poor seasons that still give you something to hold. You can see the plan, you can feel the fight, you can sense that the manager is one or two pieces away from recovering the thing. This was different. Liverpool did not look like a side on the edge of renewal. They looked like a side being slowly drained.

Slot had mitigation, of course he did. Nobody with a working heart would dismiss the emotional weight carried by the club after the tragic death of Diogo Jota in July 2025. Injuries hurt him. New signings did not settle quickly enough. Senior players lost form. The squad became awkwardly balanced in places and the £450million summer did not produce the clarity such spending should demand.

All of that belongs in the record.

It still does not change the conclusion. Liverpool had stopped looking like Liverpool.

Liverpool Lost Identity Under Slot

The most serious charge against Slot was not fifth place. It was not even the 19 defeats in all competitions. It was the erosion of identity.

Liverpool can lose matches. They cannot lose their pulse.

Under Klopp, even when things frayed, the team usually retained some trace of who they were. Energy, aggression, risk, noise, emotional momentum. Slot’s first season had its own rhythm and deserves credit. He took a side in transition and turned it into champions. That was not an accident and it should not be airbrushed away because the second year fell apart.

This season, though, the football became dull, timid and easy to resist. The tempo went. The intensity went. The crowd felt it long before it was convenient for anyone at the club to admit it.

That matters because Anfield is not a theatre audience waiting politely for tactical theory to reveal itself in month nine. It is a crowd that can forgive mistakes, even plenty of them, if it sees courage and conviction. What it will not accept for long is a Liverpool team that looks unsure of itself.

Once the supporters started turning, the job became almost impossible. Not because the supporters are always right, and not because every boo or jeer was fair. Some of the abuse Slot took was disgraceful. He seemed a decent man placed in a season that consumed him. Still, the wider mood was rooted in something real. People were not imagining the decline. They were watching it twice a week.

A league title bought him respect. It could not buy him immunity from reality.

Share

Press Briefings Fooled Too Many

The other uncomfortable part of this story is the way Liverpool’s press pack allowed themselves to be walked down a road that always looked suspect.

For months, the line was clear. Slot was safe. No plans to replace him. Full backing. No appetite for change. It was repeated with the confidence of men who believed access was the same thing as truth.

In the end, it was futile nonsense.

Most supporters with eyes, ears and even a basic feel for football could see that the position was becoming untenable. The players did not look convinced. The crowd did not sound convinced. The football did not provide an argument for patience. The results did not provide one either. Yet we were told, with great certainty, that Liverpool were not thinking that way.

That is a damning indictment of how easily club messaging can become accepted fact. Tony Barrett’s lines from inside the club were treated by too many as gospel, when any sensible observer should have understood the game being played. Clubs do not tell journalists they are planning to sack a manager. They keep the room sealed until the decision is made, then they let the world know.

That is not new. That is not complicated.

The most revealing point is that Andoni Iraola already looked done at Bournemouth. His exit had been known since April. He had guided them to sixth and Europa League qualification, then walked away after months of talks. It now looks entirely plausible that this had been in the works for weeks, perhaps since mid-April.

That makes the public confidence around Slot look even more hollow.

Someone at Liverpool, and it looks increasingly like Billy Hogan or ownership level rather than merely Richard Hughes, appears to have run out of patience. Maybe Hughes still had faith. Maybe the football structure wanted to hold the line. Maybe they hoped the season would stumble into a respectable enough finish to justify doing nothing. In the end, somebody above that line seems to have decided enough was enough.

Good. It had to happen.

Andoni Iraola Fits What Liverpool Need

If Iraola is the man, Liverpool are at least moving back towards the kind of football the club understands.

His Bournemouth side were aggressive, brave and athletic. They pressed with purpose. They attacked quickly. They did not wait for matches to happen to them. They tried to impose themselves, even against stronger opponents. That alone will appeal to Liverpool supporters who spent too much of this season watching a team play as though the volume had been turned down.

There is risk, of course. Iraola has not managed a club of Liverpool’s size. Bournemouth to Anfield is a huge jump. Players who run through walls at a club fighting upward may behave differently when they are established internationals on enormous contracts. His methods will ask serious physical questions of a squad that has already had injury concerns. Liverpool’s recruitment must support him properly or the appointment could turn into another muddle.

That is where pressure now shifts back onto Hughes, Edwards and the ownership. They have removed the coach. Fine. Now they must prove there was a plan worthy of that decision.

Iraola cannot be handed a squad built for one idea and judged for failing to produce another. If Liverpool want pressing, verticality and front foot football, they need players who can live in that world. That means wingers with legs and courage, midfielders who can cover ground, defenders who can handle space, and forwards willing to make the first sprint rather than wait for service.

The fit is promising. It is not automatic.

Liverpool also need to stop pretending all decisions can be softened by clever language. Slot was sacked. Call it what it is. There was no mutual parting of ways, no gentle fade into the sunset. He was removed because the club decided the next season would be damaged by his continued presence. That is ruthless, perhaps even cold. It is also elite football.

Thank him properly and move on.

That is where I land with Slot. No bitterness, no need to rewrite history, no childish urge to mock a man who brought Liverpool a league title. He did something significant and he should be remembered for it. He also ran out of answers and, in truth, ran out of road months before the club finally acted.

Thanks, Arne. Number 20 will never be forgotten.

Now goodbye.

Liverpool must get the next decision right, because this season has exposed more than one manager’s failings. It has exposed the fragility of the football structure, the limits of briefing culture, and the danger of mistaking delay for patience.

If Iraola comes in, he must bring back the one thing Liverpool lost long before they lost faith in Slot.

He must bring back the pulse.

Leave a comment

So the news has now seemingly become official. Ibrahima Konate will be departing Liverpool for pastures new.

What that means for the Reds, we do not fully know. It’s fair to say it does put Liverpool in a very tricky situation.

Why Liverpool need a replacement for Ibrahima Konate

At a time when there is already so much investment needed in other areas of the squad, with at least two attackers and one midfielder's eyes, it feels like an unnecessary additional burden on the club’s recruitment team to now also find an heir to Konate’s throne.

Sure, the problem is alleviated by the arrival of Jeremy Jacquet and the return of Giovanni Leoni from injury. However, can Liverpool afford to rely on their inexperience and an injury-prone Joe Gomez going into next season?

The answer is no. And it’s why Maxence Lacroix has emerged as a serious candidate for the Reds.

Why Maxence Lacroix is on Liverpool’s transfer radar

The Frenchman has always been well-liked by figures at Anfield. Liverpool’s scouts had tracked him at Wolfsburg, and there were some links to him during his time in Germany, but a move never materialised.

It’s also not the first time Lacroix will be stepping in to fill Konate’s shoes. When Konate left Sochaux for RB Leipzig, not long after Lacroix emerged as his replacement and earned himself a move to the Bundesliga, just like the now soon-to-be former Liverpool defender.

Read more

There was a moment shortly after Brentford equalised at Anfield when the entire stadium seemed to exhale in frustration rather than anger. Nobody looked shocked. Nobody even looked especially disappointed. It felt expected. Predictable. Almost routine.

That may be the most damning thing of all about this Liverpool side.

A 1-1 draw against Brentford on the final day of the Premier League season should not, in isolation, provoke existential questions. Brentford are a good side, physically excellent, tactically organised and perfectly capable of making life uncomfortable for anybody. Yet context matters. Liverpool needed a result, needed momentum, needed evidence that next season might look brighter than this one. Instead, they produced another performance that summed up a deeply troubling campaign under Arne Slot.

Yes, Champions League football has been secured. Yes, Liverpool still possess elite individuals. But watching this side over the final months of the season has increasingly felt like watching a team living off reputation rather than authority.

For an hour against Brentford, Liverpool controlled possession, territory and rhythm. Then one goal changed everything. Again.

Read more

I have spent some time analysing Archie Gray, both through footage and underlying data, and it is clear why he has appeared on Liverpool’s radar. At twenty years of age, he sits in that bracket of emerging talent where clubs are trying to identify not just what a player is, but what he could become.

What stands out immediately is that Gray is an exciting footballer to watch. That matters. Liverpool, at times this season, have lacked that sense of dynamism, and players like Gray bring energy and unpredictability. He has played a significant number of minutes in the Premier League across multiple roles, and that exposure at a young age adds a layer of maturity to his profile.

Read more

There are days at Anfield when the result barely matters.

This should have been one of them.

For one final afternoon, Liverpool supporters had the chance to stand and salute two modern giants of the football club. Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson deserved a celebration worthy of their place in Liverpool history. Between them, they helped drag Liverpool back onto the throne of English and European football. They gave supporters memories that will outlive all of us.

Instead, what unfolded against Brentford felt strangely flat, oddly uncomfortable and, in truth, painfully symbolic of where this Liverpool side currently finds itself.

Yes, there were tears. Yes, there were standing ovations. Yes, there were moments that tugged at the heart. But beneath all the emotion sat an unavoidable feeling that this was not merely the end of two legendary Liverpool careers. It felt like the closing chapter of an era the club still has not properly prepared to move beyond.

The 1-1 draw itself almost became secondary. Almost.

Because even within the emotion, Liverpool once again looked like a side stumbling toward the finish line rather than sprinting into the future.

Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson Deserved a Better Liverpool Farewell

Mohamed Salah produced one final piece of brilliance. Of course he did. That outside of the boot assist for Curtis Jones was vintage Salah, a reminder that genius rarely fades quietly. The Egyptian leaves Liverpool as the club’s all time Premier League assist leader, surpassing Steven Gerrard in the process. That alone tells you the scale of the footballer walking away from Anfield.

Andy Robertson, meanwhile, delivered another display full of composure, energy and commitment. It summed him up perfectly. No fuss. No drama. Just complete commitment to the shirt right until the very end.

For two players who gave Liverpool everything, this should have been an afternoon of pure celebration.

Instead, the overriding emotion became frustration.

Read more

Liverpool secured Champions League qualification with a 1-1 draw against Brentford at Anfield in an emotional afternoon dominated by the farewells to Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson. Arne Slot’s side only required a point to confirm fifth place in the Premier League and managed to do enough despite another uneven performance.

Salah nearly produced the perfect ending early in the match when his curling free-kick struck the post, while Alisson Becker was required to make an excellent save to deny Kevin Schade at the other end. Liverpool eventually found the breakthrough in the 58th minute when Salah provided a composed assist for Curtis Jones, who finished confidently in front of the Kop.

The lead did not last long. Brentford responded just six minutes later through Schade after Liverpool once again struggled to maintain control following a goal. The visitors threatened occasionally on the counter attack, but Liverpool held firm during a tense closing period.

Attention quickly returned to the departing club legends. Salah received a standing ovation when substituted in the 74th minute, while Robertson was warmly applauded late on. Brentford’s hopes of European qualification ended with the draw, while Liverpool secured a return to Europe’s top competition.

Post-Match Podcasts

Trev Downey, Dave Hendrick and Karl Matchett all gave their instant match reaction on ‘Post-Match RAW’ - Listen now.

Gags Tandon is joined by Lola Katz Roberts on the ‘Gags Tandon Show’ as they react to Liverpool’s draw with Brentford - Watch now.

Post-Match Articles

• Match Report

• Player Ratings by Steven Smith

• Man of the Match by Steven Smith

• David Lynch’s Five Key Takeaways

Liverpool head into the final day of the Premier League season with Champions League qualification within touching distance. Brentford arrive at Anfield with their own European ambitions, while Liverpool carry the weight of a disastrous season on their shoulders.

This fixture matters because Liverpool still need the points, yet the mood around Anfield feels shaped less by league tables and more by farewells.

Mohamed Salah and Andy Robertson are preparing to walk out at Anfield for the final time after nine extraordinary years at the club. Even writing that feels strange. One transformed Liverpool into champions through goals and relentless brilliance, the other became the embodiment of intensity and drive from left back. Their departures will leave huge voids that will be almost impossible to replace.

Goodbyes That Will Hit Liverpool Hard

There is something uniquely painful about the end of an era at Liverpool. Supporters don’t just admire players here, they build relationships with them through moments, seasons and memories. Salah’s goals against Manchester United, Manchester City and Everton became part of modern Liverpool history. Robertson’s snarling competitiveness turned him into a favourite almost immediately.

Salah still decides games in seconds and Robertson still drags energy out of those around him, but we are now heading into a brand new era on Merseyside.

There is also uncertainty surrounding several others. Alisson Becker continues to attract interest from Europe and his future remains unclear. Joe Gomez could seek regular football elsewhere, while Curtis Jones faces an important summer as Liverpool reshape the squad under Slot.

The emotional edge of this afternoon may influence the game itself. Anfield crowds become deeply protective during moments like these. There will be tears. Liverpool supporters understand they are watching the closing chapter for players who helped restore the club to the summit of English and European football.

That emotion can inspire a performance, but it can also create tension. Brentford are organised enough to take advantage if Liverpool lose focus.

Liverpool Team News

There was positive news from the AXA Training Centre this week. Arne Slot confirmed that both Alisson Becker and Alexander Isak trained yesterday and should return to the squad for the Premier League meeting with Brentford.

Alisson’s return is especially significant. Liverpool look calmer and more assured when he plays. His positioning, authority and distribution remain among the best in world football. In a match likely to carry huge emotion, his composure could prove vital.

Several players remain unavailable with long term problems. Conor Bradley, Giovanni Leoni, Stefan Bajcetic, Wataru Endo, Jayden Danns and Hugo Ekitike are all sidelined.

Liverpool’s likely approach feels clear enough. Slot will want control in midfield, aggression high up the pitch and enough attacking quality to pin Brentford back early. Brentford, meanwhile, will look to exploit transitions and moments from set pieces, areas where Liverpool have occasionally looked vulnerable this season.

Predicted XI: Alisson, Jones, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Gakpo, Salah.

Premier League Pressure Still Remains

For all the emotion surrounding the day, Liverpool cannot afford to drift into nostalgia before the final whistle. Champions League qualification remains essential for the club’s sporting ambitions and summer recruitment plans.

Brentford should not be underestimated either. They are aggressive, physically strong and capable of frustrating bigger sides. Their pressing can disrupt rhythm and they attack direct spaces quickly. Liverpool may dominate possession, but that does not guarantee comfort.

There is a feeling this game could become scrappy rather than spectacular. Emotion often drains fluency from football matches. The crowd will react to every Salah touch and every Robertson tackle. The atmosphere may resemble a testimonial at times, but Brentford will treat it like a competitive Premier League fixture.

Liverpool should have enough quality to secure the result they need, although nerves could make it uncomfortable. The bigger memory may not come from the football itself anyway. It may come after the final whistle, when Salah and Robertson stand in front of the Kop one last time.

Score prediction: Liverpool 1-1 Brentford.

It’s finally happening. Liverpool are actually signing a South American wonderkid.

After a myriad of names being linked over the years from pretty much every country on the continent, Liverpool have finally got one over the line, and in turn Michael Edwards has successfully accomplished his mission.

The club’s chief has always been adamant that South America is a market for Liverpool to explore.

Over the years under Edwards, Liverpool have grown and expanded their scouting network on the continent.

And the fruits of those labours have seen the Reds land Samuel Martinez.

Who is Samuel Martinez?

He plays for Atletico Nacional’s U20 side and caught the eye at the U17 Copa America earlier this year.

Martinez led his side to become the champions of the tournament while registering an assist in the final, the semi-final and the quarter-final.

Read more

Mohamed Salah’s social media post was not comfortable viewing. Let us start there.

Liverpool people of a certain generation will always remember former chairman John Smith saying in a 1986 documentary that Liverpool “do not air our dirty linen in public”. That principle mattered. It was part of the club’s culture. Internal matters stayed internal. Problems were handled behind closed doors. Dignity came first.

So no, I did not enjoy watching Salah publicly criticise the direction of Liverpool Football Club. I did not enjoy Curtis Jones amplifying it either. I wish none of it had happened.

But wishing it had not happened does not magically make Salah wrong.

And this is where the reaction from large parts of the mainstream football media has become utterly infuriating.

Because instead of seriously engaging with why Salah’s words resonated so deeply with Liverpool supporters, too many journalists and pundits have defaulted to the laziest possible narrative. Salah is selfish. Salah is bitter. Salah is toxic. Salah is making it about himself. Salah is damaging the club.

Fine. If that is your position, at least explain the foundation beneath it.

Where is the balance in any of this coverage? Where is the objectivity? Where is the scrutiny of Arne Slot’s catastrophic handling of this season? Where is the outrage over Liverpool producing historically bad results? Where is the serious examination of a side that has visibly regressed tactically, physically and emotionally for over a year?

Instead, we are watching media figures circle around the same safe conclusion because it protects relationships, preserves access and keeps everybody in comfortable positions.

That is precisely why fan media has become so important.

Fan Media Exists Because Trust Has Eroded

I write for independent outlets. I have a job outside football that pays my bills. Liverpool writing is driven by emotion, investment and genuine opinion, not by preserving access to press conferences or maintaining cosy relationships behind the scenes.

That matters.

Because when I hear figures like Ollie Holt, Ian Ladyman, Wayne Rooney and even Jamie Carragher lining up to condemn Salah, I cannot help questioning how authentic these opinions truly are anymore.

Are they analysing the reality Liverpool supporters are watching every week, or are they protecting the machinery they rely upon professionally?

That sounds harsh, perhaps unfair to some, but supporters are not stupid. Fans can sense when coverage becomes performative rather than honest. They can sense when journalists become more offended by a breach of media etiquette than by the collapse unfolding on the pitch itself.

Liverpool have been dreadful this season.

Not mediocre. Not inconsistent. Dreadful.

This is a side that has looked physically weak, mentally fragile and tactically incoherent for months. Liverpool have become painfully easy to play against. The football is sterile. The aggression has disappeared. The identity has vanished. Supporters are not imagining this decline. They are living through it every week.

Yet somehow Salah became the central villain because he publicly acknowledged what everybody can plainly see.

The media reaction has exposed a disconnect between football’s establishment voices and the supporters inside the stadium.

Salah Broke The Rules, Not The Truth

Salah violated an old Liverpool principle by speaking publicly. That much is undeniable.

But there is a difference between breaking convention and telling lies.

Nothing Salah said was morally wrong. Nothing he said was factually wrong either.

Liverpool do need to rediscover intensity. Liverpool do need higher standards. Liverpool have drifted alarmingly away from the football that made them feared across Europe. The side does crumble too easily now. All of this is true.

What fascinates me is how little curiosity there has been from mainstream media about why so many Liverpool supporters instantly agreed with him.

That should have been the story.

Instead, the entire conversation became about Salah’s tone, Salah’s timing and Salah’s ego.

Very few people stopped to ask why a significant section of Liverpool’s support reacted with something close to relief. Perhaps because many supporters feel they have spent the past year being gaslit about what they are watching.

When fans complain about performances, they are told to calm down because Slot won the league in his first season.

When supporters point to tactical failures, they are accused of hysteria.

When concerns emerge about standards slipping, they are dismissed as emotional overreaction.

Meanwhile Liverpool continue conceding goals at alarming rates, producing lifeless performances and looking less recognisable with every passing month.

Supporters know what decline looks like. Liverpool’s fanbase has seen enough football across enough decades to recognise drift when it arrives.

That is why Salah’s words landed.

Carragher Should Know Better Than Most

Jamie Carragher’s contribution to this discussion has been especially disappointing.

Not because he criticised Salah. That is fair game. Nobody should be immune from criticism. But Carragher framed this entire situation as “Salah FC”, comparing him to Cristiano Ronaldo’s scorched earth Manchester United exit.

That comparison felt absurd.

Ronaldo attacked everybody and everything because his own status had diminished. Salah’s post focused overwhelmingly on Liverpool’s standards, identity and direction. You may dislike the method but pretending this was solely about personal ego ignores the substance entirely.

More importantly, Carragher should understand Liverpool supporters better than anybody sitting in those television studios.

He knows this fanbase. He knows how emotionally tied supporters are to identity and intensity. He knows Liverpool supporters will tolerate failure far more readily than they tolerate drift, passivity and emotional detachment.

And yet his analysis barely engaged with any of that.

Instead, it became another lecture about timing and selfishness.

Again, I ask, where is the balance?

Where was this energy when Slot publicly distanced himself from responsibility by implying supporters underestimate the importance of transfer windows? Where was this scrutiny when Liverpool repeatedly produced chaotic, disorganised performances? Where was the outrage over the collapse in standards across the squad?

Salah gets hammered for speaking publicly, yet Slot has spent months handling the media appallingly while overseeing Liverpool’s steepest regression in years.

The imbalance is impossible to ignore.

Public Fallout Revealed Something Bigger

The most revealing part of this entire saga was not Salah’s post itself.

It was the reaction from Liverpool players.

Modern footballers understand optics perfectly. They are media trained relentlessly. Every like, every emoji, every interaction is calculated because they know how quickly narratives form online. Tony Barrett and Liverpool’s communications team work tirelessly to prevent precisely this sort of public fracture from happening.

Yet players still openly engaged with Salah’s message.

That matters enormously.

Share

Maybe they were only supporting a friend. Maybe they simply agreed standards must improve. But they absolutely understood how it would be perceived externally. To pretend otherwise is naive.

This is no longer one unhappy player lashing out.

This feels like symptoms of a club losing alignment from top to bottom.

Which brings us back to why fan media matters so much now.

Supporters increasingly crave honesty. Not sanitised access journalism. Not carefully managed narratives designed to preserve relationships. Honest reactions from people emotionally invested in Liverpool Football Club itself rather than their standing within football’s media ecosystem.

I may not write with the polish or eloquence of some national journalists. But at least supporters know where I stand. They know my opinions are not shaped by preserving access, protecting relationships or worrying about invitations drying up.

And I suspect many Liverpool supporters are growing tired of voices who no longer seem capable of speaking freely themselves.

Salah broke an old Liverpool rule this week.

But perhaps the louder truth is that Liverpool’s silence had already become unsustainable.

Leave a comment

You can look at them and instantly remember where you were, who was in the side, what the football felt like and what Liverpool Football Club represented at that moment in time. The new 2026/27 home kit from Liverpool FC and adidas taps directly into that emotion, and in truth, they could hardly have picked a better era to revisit.

The inspiration comes from the famous 1989 to 1991 adidas strip, the one worn during Liverpool’s title winning side under Sir Kenny Dalglish. For supporters of a certain age, that shirt is stitched into memory alongside greatness. It represented dominance, swagger and a football club that expected to win the league every single season.

The Power of Football Nostalgia

Football clubs know exactly what they are doing when they revisit iconic designs. The smartest kit launches are never really about fabric or templates. They are about emotion.

Liverpool supporters do not look at the old 1989 shirt and think about collar stitching or sleeve trim. They think about John Barnes gliding through defenders, Peter Beardsley linking attacks and Anfield carrying that aura of inevitability. They think about Liverpool being the standard bearer of English football.

That is why this new adidas design works.

The geometric pattern immediately evokes memories of the original without becoming a lazy copy. It respects the past while still looking modern enough for today’s game. The deep red tone is sharp, rich and unmistakably Liverpool, while the white detailing across the crest and adidas branding gives it that classic contrast supporters always associate with the club’s greatest eras.

Some modern football kits try far too hard. They overdesign, overcomplicate and lose the identity of the club in the process. Liverpool and adidas have largely avoided that trap here.

This feels like Liverpool.

adidas Understand Liverpool Better Than Most

There is something about the relationship between Liverpool and adidas that simply works.

Supporters often speak romantically about certain manufacturers, and for Liverpool fans, adidas remains deeply woven into the club’s identity. The three stripes are connected to some of the most successful and visually iconic periods in Liverpool history.

The irony is that football kits are often remembered as fondly as trophies. Mention Istanbul and supporters picture that Reebok shirt. Mention the 1980s and many immediately picture adidas.

That emotional attachment matters.

Nike produced some decent Liverpool kits during their spell with the club, but adidas seem to understand the heritage side of Liverpool better. Their designs tend to appreciate what supporters actually want. Simplicity, authority and a clear understanding of the club’s visual identity.

This new home shirt captures that balance beautifully.

A Club Leaning Into Its History Again

What stands out most about this launch is how comfortable Liverpool now appear with their own legacy.

For years, particularly during the post Premier League title drought era, there was almost a reluctance around the club to lean too heavily into history. Understandably so. Talking endlessly about past greatness while Manchester United dominated English football was not a comfortable position for supporters.

That has changed.

The Klopp era restored belief, restored standards and restored Liverpool to the top table.

This kit launch reflects that confidence.

You do not revisit the imagery of the 1989 title winning side unless you believe your modern side belongs in similar company. Liverpool are no longer borrowing prestige from the past. They are adding to it again.

That is an important distinction.

The Small Details Matter

One of the more interesting additions is the new name and number style on the back of the shirt, inspired by the wings and talons of the Liver bird.

That could easily sound overly corporate or gimmicky in a press release, but visually it actually works well. Liverpool have increasingly tried to create stronger visual branding consistency across the club in recent seasons, and this feels like another step in that direction.

Modern football branding is unavoidable now. Every major club is effectively a global entertainment brand. The key is ensuring those commercial decisions still feel connected to the club’s culture.

This one does.

The goalkeeper kit also deserves mention. The green colourway inspired by the era being referenced is a clever touch. Liverpool goalkeeper kits have often become cult favourites over the years, and this one feels likely to follow that path.

Why Kits Still Matter to Supporters

Some people dismiss football kits as little more than expensive merchandise. They are wrong.

Kits are identity.

They become attached to seasons, players, moments and emotions. Supporters remember where they watched matches through the shirt their team wore. Children fall in love with football wearing them in school playgrounds. Entire generations become visually linked to certain designs.

That is why there is always such scrutiny when a new Liverpool kit is released.

Supporters are not merely judging a shirt. They are judging whether it feels worthy of representing Liverpool Football Club.

This one largely passes that test.

It feels rooted in tradition without becoming trapped by it. It feels premium without looking sterile. Most importantly, it feels connected to a winning Liverpool side, both historically and currently.

The Weight of the Badge

Perhaps the most striking thing about seeing the new shirt is how naturally it fits the current squad.

You can already picture players like Alexander Isak, Virgil van Dijk and Florian Wirtz wearing it under the Anfield lights next season. That matters more than people realise.

Some kits look disconnected from the team wearing them. This one already feels part of Liverpool’s current identity.

There is also something fitting about Liverpool revisiting one of their great title winning eras at a time when expectations around the club are rising again. Success changes everything. It changes how a club markets itself, how supporters feel and how the football world views you.

The new adidas home kit feels designed for a club that expects to compete for the biggest honours again.

And honestly, that is exactly how it should be at Liverpool.

Because the best Liverpool kits have always represented more than style. They represented authority.

This one might just do the same.

Liverpool are entering a summer of uncertainty and transition. Andy Robertson has confirmed his intention to leave at the end of the season and with him could go a huge chunk of leadership, personality and experience from the dressing room.

Mohamed Salah is leaving. Alisson Becker is edging closer to a possible move away amid interest from Juventus. Joe Gomez is expected to depart after a decade of service. Alexis Mac Allister continues to attract attention after worrying decline this season. Curtis Jones, one of the club’s own, also looks set to move on after seven years around the senior setup.

Thankfully for Liverpool, captain Virgil van Dijk remains in place. His presence still matters more than ever. Yet even his current contract expires next summer, although there remains time for that to be addressed.

Leadership at Liverpool has never just been about an armband. It is about standards, personality and carrying responsibility when things become uncomfortable. That is why choosing the next vice captain matters. But who could it be?

Read more