Liverpool will be the defending Premier League champions in 2025-26, while also looking to do better in the Champions League. We ask five key questions of Arne Slot’s side ahead of the new campaign.
Few thought it was possible, especially after the departure of Jürgen Klopp.
Liverpool’s iconic former manager didn’t have the energy to go again, and so was replaced by a relative unknown, or at least, unknown outside of the Eredivisie.
Many were sceptical as to whether Arne Slot could handle such a big job, especially in the shadow of their most successful manager of the modern era, but the Dutchman took to it like a duck to water.
Slot’s Reds won the Premier League title with four games to spare in 2024-25, and now the questions are around who can stop them from doing it again.
New additions have arrived, but the pressure has also been ramped up, with the eyes of the world on Slot’s second season.
Ahead of their opening game against Bournemouth on Friday, we pose five questions for Liverpool heading into the 2025-26 campaign, and with all that said, it seems appropriate to start with…
Can They Do It Again?
Last season was incredible for Liverpool, but this is the so-called difficult second album. They are the team to beat now, with an even bigger target on their back. Will they be able to perform as well or better than last season?
Liverpool amassed 84 points in 2024-25, winning the league by 10 points. That doesn’t tell the whole story, though, as Slot’s men had 82 points after 34 games, picking up only another two after they secured the title (D2 L2). There was a visible, albeit understandable, drop-off after they had clinched first spot.
There was no doubt the Reds deserved to lift the big shiny Premier League trophy in May. They scored at least 14 more goals than any other team (86), had an expected goals (xG) total at least 14 more than anyone else (83.5 xG), attempted at least 41 more shots than any other team and won at least four more games (25).
Liverpool xG 2024-25 Premier League
They also kept things relatively tight at the back, with only Arsenal (34) bettering their 41 goals conceded, and it should be borne in mind that nine of those goals (22%) came after they had already won the title.
What does bode well for Liverpool is that after Slot won the Eredivisie title in his second season at Feyenoord, his team actually improved in pretty much all metrics the following year.
They won two more points in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23, scored 11 more goals, improved their xG by a whopping 28.9, conceded four fewer goals and had a lower xG against by 4.2.
Unfortunately for them, despite all that, Feyenoord didn’t win the league, but that was largely because PSV had an incredible season of overperformance.
So, as long as none of their Premier League rivals become near invincible this season, Liverpool can be optimistic about leading the way again in 2025-26.
How Quickly Will the New Signings Settle?
One of the more remarkable things about Liverpool’s success last season was that it came after a summer in which they only added one new player, and that was Federico Chiesa, who played a grand total of 104 minutes in the Premier League, with zero goal involvements.
Sticking with a settled squad may have been a factor in their form last season, but it won’t be this time around as Liverpool have added plenty of new faces. Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez and Hugo Ekitiké have been signed, while Giorgi Mamardashvili has also arrived after that deal was arranged in advance last summer.
The signing of Wirtz in particular for an initial club-record fee of £100 million is an enticing one. The Germany international is one of the most exciting players in world football, and his signing is a real statement.
Florian Wirtz 2024-25 Bundesliga stats and rank
There have been exits too, with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhín Kelleher, Luis Díaz, Jarell Quansah and Darwin Núñez departing, while the tragic death of Diogo Jota will be felt for the foreseeable future. The club has retired the number 20 shirt in Jota’s honour.
In terms of the new players, it’s not just adding depth. The four outfield signings are all likely to be regular starters under Slot. Ekitiké might find it trickier to get into the team if reported target Alexander Isak arrives before the window shuts, but given the £69m+ outlay on the young Frenchman, it seems unlikely he’ll be left out too often.
Slot has experience of significant change to his squad, having signed 15 new players in the summer of 2022 before Feyenoord went on to win the league, and a further 14 the following year. He is very much used to significant player turnover and making a success of it.
The new signings have seemingly been fitting in well during pre-season. Wirtz scored his first goal in a Liverpool shirt in a 3-1 win at Yokohama F. Marinos, Frimpong provided an assist in the same game, Ekitiké impressed at Anfield against Athletic Club when he assisted Salah for the opening goal, while Kerkez won the fans over in his first game at Preston when he tried to tackle an opponent with his face.
Then, in Sunday’s Community Shield penalty-shootout defeat to Crystal Palace, Wirtz assisted Ekitiké for the opener, before Frimpong scored the second for Liverpool, albeit from what was probably a mis-hit cross.
Ekitike goal v Palace sequence map
Will the new additions improve a Liverpool side who won the league comfortably last time out? If so, it seems ominous for everyone else.
Do Liverpool Have Enough In Defence?
As mentioned, Liverpool conceded just 32 goals in their first 34 league games last season, so they were largely fine defensively in 2024-25. However, there are already question marks about their defending heading into this campaign after they were opened up regularly by Crystal Palace in the Community Shield.
Having two new full-backs in Frimpong and Kerkez, both of whom are very much attack-minded, means the centre-backs will be asked to do the majority of defending and cover a lot of the pitch.
It should be noted that Virgil van Dijk, who somewhat struggled at Wembley, was just coming back from an illness, and while Liverpool have conceded quite a few goals in pre-season, most of those games featured unfamiliar faces at centre-back, which brings us onto a slightly more pertinent concern.
In the 2020-21 season, Liverpool were defending their Premier League crown. It started well enough, they were top of the table by four points after 14 games.
However, they went into that season with just three senior centre-backs, which came back to bite them as by the halfway point of the campaign, all three of Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joël Matip were out injured for the remainder of the season.
That meant having to play midfielders and make emergency signings at centre-back, which inevitably led to a slump in form. It was quite incredible they still managed to finish third in the circumstances, but while the injuries had been rotten luck, not preparing for such an eventuality was on the club.
Following the sale of Quansah to Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpool only have Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konaté and Gomez to choose from as senior centre-backs at the moment, not accounting for the possibility of papering over potential cracks with midfielders Wataru Endo, Ryan Gravenberch or left-back Andy Robertson.
Liverpool squad depth 11 August 2025
There is also Gomez’s injury record to consider. He played 16 games by the turn of the year last season, but after suffering a hamstring injury at West Ham in late December, only made one more before the end of the campaign, a brief outing at Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup before getting injured again. He also missed the last few games of pre-season and the Community Shield with a minor Achilles issue.
There’s also the fact Van Dijk is 34 years old. The Dutchman was the only centre-back to feature in the 30-man Ballon d’Or shortlist released last week, so his quality is still exceptionally high. Whether he can play 4,000+ minutes again, as he has done in five of his seven full seasons at Liverpool, though, is another question.
Konaté was able to play 42 games last season, but it was the first time the France international has featured in at least 40 games in a campaign since joining the Reds in 2021.
You feel they need to add at least one more centre-back, especially entering a season in which they intend to go all the way in every competition, which would mean around 65 games are ahead of them.
There have been links to Marc Guéhi and Parma teenager Giovanni Leoni, so it seems to be an issue the club are looking to resolve before the transfer window shuts.
How Will They Manage Without Mo?
Don’t worry Liverpool fans, Mohamed Salah hasn’t gone anywhere. He signed a new two-year contract a few months ago and is back to try and follow up what was an astonishing 2024-25 campaign in which he recorded 57 goal involvements.
Mohamed Salah goal involvements 2024-25
However, with the Africa Cup of Nations taking place between 21 December and 18 January, Salah will be absent for at least a few weeks of the season, and at a busy time as well. As things stand, he will miss at least five Premier League games, including the trip to Arsenal in early January, and potentially a sixth at home to Burnley should Egypt make it to the final.
It’s easy to assume there will be a dip in form without their star man, but Liverpool have coped well during AFCON absences for Salah in the past.
In 2021-22, Salah only missed two league games, but Liverpool won them both, while they also overcame Arsenal in the EFL Cup semi-final and progressed past Cardiff City in the FA Cup.
Two seasons later, Salah missed four league games due to the AFCON, of which Liverpool won three and lost one, that being a 3-1 defeat at Arsenal, though they had already beaten the Gunners with a Salah-less side in the FA Cup, also getting past Norwich City in the next round and reaching another EFL Cup final after beating Fulham over two legs.
Liverpool with and without Salah
However, the problem is not just when Salah is away.
The last two times the Egyptian King has played at the AFCON during a domestic season, he has left in exceptional form, only for his numbers to dip noticeably on his return.
In 2021-22, Salah scored 16 goals and recorded nine assists in 20 league games before heading off to the AFCON, but only managed seven goals with four assists in 15 league games after coming back.
In 2023-24, Salah had 14 goals and eight assists in the Premier League prior to the AFCON, though he returned with an injury. He came off the bench to score in a 4-1 win at Brentford, but then missed a further three weeks, after which he only managed four goals and two assists in 12 league games.
Coping in Salah’s absence will be one thing, but perhaps managing his return will be an even bigger challenge for Slot.
Can They Go Further in the Champions League?
Liverpool will want to retain their Premier League crown, but you get the impression the Champions League is the one they’ll really want this season.
They were initially impressive in the competition last season, becoming the first team to top the 36-team league phase following UEFA’s re-jigging of the format.
Champions League league phase table 2024-25
It didn’t do them much good, though, as it simply lined them up to face Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16. PSG had already looked like a tough reward for finishing top, only for it to transpire that it wasn’t just a harder opponent than expected, it was the hardest possible opponent.
Mikel Arteta might disagree but Liverpool came closer than anyone else in the knockout stages to stopping PSG, taking the eventual competition winners to a penalty shootout. Had the outcome from 12 yards that night been different, who knows how far the Reds would have gone?
Slot will hope for more luck with the draw this time, but will also want his team to be ready for anyone, including PSG.
Luis Enrique’s men dominated the first leg in Paris, with the hosts having 27 shots to Liverpool’s two, but the Premier League side somehow won 1-0. In the second leg at Anfield, it was Liverpool who were on top in normal time, with 18 shots to PSG’s 10, but the visitors won 1-0, sending it to extra-time and penalties.
PSG certainly deserved to win the tie by the end, though, and Slot appreciated there was still another level his team needed to reach to go from being the best in England to the best in Europe.
Liverpool go into the 2024-25 season in the number one spot in the Opta Power Rankings, which we’re sure will mean as much to them as the Premier League title victory.
We’ll see in 2025-26 if they’re up to the challenge again, but these are certainly exciting times in L4.
Premier League Stats Opta
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