I’m torn, if I’m honest. On one hand, you can’t dress it up: performances and results this season have dipped below what we expect at Liverpool. On the other, I do think the manager has earned a bit of respect and leeway after what was achieved last year. Both things can be true. And that’s what makes the next set of decisions feel so tricky.

Patience isn’t the same as pretending

There’s a temptation, when standards drop, to reach straight for the reset button. New ideas, new faces, new everything. It feels decisive. It feels like a cure.

But patience doesn’t mean accepting it, or ignoring what we’re seeing. It just means recognising that building a top side is usually a process, not a weekly referendum. You can want improvement without insisting on ripping the whole thing up again.

Football’s rarely that neat anyway. Even when you do “change everything”, you still have to blend personalities, roles, fitness levels, and the basic understanding that makes a team look like a team. That takes time, and it takes repetition.

A World Cup summer changes the equation

The part that keeps getting overlooked in all the big-swing talk is the calendar. This is a World Cup year and it’s not just a side note. It’s a massive wedge driven into what would normally be the one clear runway you get for pre-season work.

If the tournament runs deep into July and the league is back in late August, that’s not much of a window. Players going deep will need a proper break, and then you’re straight into “get ready for the season” mode with limited time on the grass together. That is not ideal if you’re trying to implement sweeping tactical changes or bedding in a clutch of new signings all at once.

Evolution beats annual upheaval

I’m not arguing for doing nothing. Liverpool should always be looking for necessary improvements, and there’s clearly work to be done. But “necessary” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, because wholesale change can easily become chaos if the conditions aren’t right.

We’ve already seen how turbulent a big transition can be. It’s not just about talent, it’s about cohesion: relationships, automatisms, understanding when to press, when to drop, how to manage transitions. All the stuff that turns a group of good players into a proper side.

Continuity has value. Unity is strength. The best teams don’t reinvent themselves every summer. They evolve, they add the right pieces, and they give the group a chance to grow together. That might not be as satisfying as a full rebuild on paper, but it’s usually how the serious sides stay serious.

Written by Richie Red: 18 January 2026

Tags: tactics transfers efl match-review injury