The deposed champions, their dreams of another great dynasty seemingly ruined by the very transfer window that had their supporters dreaming of it, Liverpool return to a Premier League that has thoroughly chastened them. There will be no Arne Slot in the dugout this time, the sense that fans weren’t having a coach who led them to the title in his debut season meaning that his second go around proved to be his final one.In his place comes former Bournemouth manager Andoni Iraola, a coach who proved himself to be adaptable and capable on moving to England but who must now prove he can bend one of England’s biggest clubs to his will. Several of his predecessors hired from within the English game found that to be a tough task. With a potentially radically different style of play to bed into a team that has, as it did in 2025, lost several key figures.Why you should root for themIn the increasingly homogenised world of elite sport, few of England’s top clubs retain quite the same sense of themselves and their place that Liverpool do. There is a strong feeling of community and social justice around Anfield, an ideology that underpins a fanbase who will fight to make sure the club lives up to the values of the community. That that remains while Liverpool continue to compete for (and win) the biggest prizes in the sport is a triumph.Alternatively, maybe you’re Jeff Bezos and you’re part of a consortium that just bought about 30% of the club from Fenway Sports Group (yes, that Fenway). See, even when a club just about clings onto its sense of community, it cannot help but be a great big asset in an industry that keeps drawing capital.
Is this team good?The story of Liverpool in 2025-26 was the story of two star attackers, Florian Wirtz and Mohamed Salah, writ large. Undeniably, neither were quite at the level that you would expect from a $135 million new signing nor the reigning player of the year. By the standards they set, each fell short. Compared to what might reasonably be expected from most Premier League players, they were still very good. Had it not been for the injuries, a squad-building process that left Arne Slot plugging gaps in some spots, spinning plates in others, and perhaps the emotional toll of a season that began with the loss of Diogo Jota, more could have been made of the season.Liverpool’s was a weird, imbalanced season for a weird, imbalanced squad, one who could reel off last-gasp winners one month and struggle to string two points together the next. How much of that is going to be changed by 12 months’ more familiarity between some of their big-money signings and how much by a new coach really is not clear yet.What has changed?Well, you’ll have heard all about the new coach. Iraola arrived with an impressive reputation from his two seasons at Bournemouth, a period where the almost continual selling off of his prime assets did not stop him from delivering European football on the south coast. With their commitment to rapidly moving the ball upfield, the Cherries were one of the most thrilling Premier League outfits of recent years, a real neutral’s favorite. The signs from preseason hint that Liverpool, who threw away two-goal advantages against Leeds and Monaco, might be the same.
Speaking after the second friendly defeat, Iraola offered the sort of assessment that is one of those rare meaningful insights from preseason. Praising his side’s performance for the first 30 minutes, he warned that, “[Liverpool] don’t have much more, in terms of the levels required to play like this.” Iraola expects his teams to run and run and run. According to data provided for CBS Sports by Gradient Sports, Bournemouth players covered the most distance at a sprint of any Premier League team last season, averaging 280m at full pelt each per 90 minutes.That is a lot to ask, particularly of players who are not hoping to earn a move to a top team, as his Bournemouth charges were, but are already at the summit of the game. It is easy to see how Anfield, once so enraptured by Jurgen Klopp’s early attempts to implement “heavy metal football”, might like Iraola’s game (if results hold). Will the players?It may not matter. One of the most compelling arguments in favor of Iraola is that he proved himself humble enough to quickly and drastically see when his style did not suit his players. On his arrival at Bournemouth in 2023, the then-former Rayo Vallecano boss tried to import what had worked for him in Spain, high pressing without the ball and studied build-up through the midfield with it. That began so badly — three points in their first nine games — that there were questions over how much longer Iraola would last. Out went the possession game plan, replaced by a classically English commitment to getting the ball out wide nice and fast. It worked a treat.
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Will the same patience be afforded to Iraola under the Anfield spotlights? Liverpool had long prided themselves on giving managers time, but that did not save Slot, whose second season was riven by bust-ups with Salah. It always seemed that the Dutchman had been landed with the unfortunate task of shepherding the stars of Klopp’s sides through their post-prime years. That became ever harder when Salah’s first year under Slot was one of the best the Premier League has ever seen, 29 goals and 18 assists delivering the 20th top-flight title.With Salah now at Trabzonspor, and Ibrahima Konate and Andrew Robertson also departed, Iraola gets more of a go at forging the post-Klopp side. Easier mentioned than done when those above him have not entirely plugged the gaps in the squad. For now, Konate’s replacements are the 21-year-old Jeremy Jacquet and loanee Ronald Araujo, who struggled in recent years at Barcelona. At the time of writing, Robertson has not really been replaced; there are still questions about a right back spot that Jeremie Frimpong does not look an ideal fit for defensively, and injuries have sidelined the likes of Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez.All that, and there has not really been a natural replacement for Salah, the one attacker signed so far in Victor Munoz being a left winger. So is their leading target Bradley Barcola, whose potential arrival at great expense would be facilitated by the departure of Cody Gakpo to Tottenham. That would help him to fit on the balance sheet, but swapping out Salah for Barcola might not necessarily address the same headache Slot had about how he builds a formation around the many expensive talents handed to him. In the short term Barcola left of Wirtz, whoever on the right and Isak through the middle seems fine, even if that might mean getting less of last season’s best player Dominik Szoboszlai in a deeper role. What would happen when Hugo Ekitike returns from his Achilles injury, intent on reclaiming the striker role in which he impressed?
Some of the personnel might have changed, but the sense is that Iraola could find himself bedevilled by the same squad-building issues manufactured by Michael Edwards and Richard Hughes.Expectations for 2026-27The last time Liverpool were looking at a rebuilding phase, Slot led them to a title out of nowhere. It wouldn’t be entirely wise to rule that out for a team that still includes the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Alisson and Wirtz. Those are great players, but they are not the same cadre of winners that Iraola’s predecessor got to pick up and run with post-Klopp. This looks like being a newer Liverpool trying to play a new way. There could be growing pains.
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