Mixed Feelings on the Window and Slot

I’ll be honest, I’ve got mixed feelings and I can’t really shake them. On the one hand, I came out of the summer window pretty chuffed, like most of us. On the other, I’ve watched us and thought: how exactly is this meant to click together, week after week, in the Premier League?

I’ve also been banging the drum for MG for ages, well before the window even properly opened. So when it didn’t get done and it dragged on, it did my head in. Leaving things late is one thing, but it always feels like you invite chaos when you’re trying to finish your main business with the clock ticking.

Excited by the names, worried by the fit

The thing is, you can be happy with the individual players and still worry about the team. That’s where I’m at. I like what we’ve brought in, and I totally get why plenty of Reds looked at it and thought we were set up to kick on and dominate for years.

But even at the time, I couldn’t properly see how it all knitted together. Not in a doom-and-gloom way, more in that nagging, football-nerd way where you’re picturing roles, spacing, who’s covering what, and who ends up doing the dirty running when the game turns messy.

I trusted Arne Slot to blend it. That’s the job, after all. New ideas, clean slate, make the pieces make sense. I just don’t think it’s happened in the way many of us expected.

The run-in doubts didn’t go away

I had a little doubt about how we played on the run-in, and it’s stuck with me. You can sometimes get away with a few rough edges when confidence is high, but the Premier League is ruthless when your structure isn’t quite right. Teams don’t let you breathe. They press you, they run off you, and if your distances are off by even a yard, you’re suddenly defending transitions instead of controlling matches.

That’s why my biggest disappointment isn’t really about any one signing. It’s that Slot, so far, hasn’t looked like what many of us thought he was going to be, and it feels like he’s missed a bit of what’s required, both by us as fans and by the league itself.

MG is a class act, and I’m not budging

What I won’t have is the idea that MG “isn’t a good player”. That’s miles off it for me. He’s a class act. The type you back to grow into the shirt, not just wear it. If we get the setup right around him, I genuinely think he’s got the personality and quality to become a proper Anfield favourite.

As for Diaz, I’ll admit I wish he stayed. But even there, my overall feeling comes back to the same point: players matter, but the blend matters more. And right now, I’m still waiting to see Liverpool look like a side that knows exactly what it is.

YNWA.

Written by Chrisymate: 17 January 2026