Poor performances, decent position: the Liverpool split

There’s a weird split to watching Liverpool this season. The eye test says one thing: we’re clunky, short of rhythm, and too often making it up as we go along. The table, though, keeps whispering another message: we’re still in the hunt for the places that matter.

And that’s what makes it so frustrating. You can see the level in us, even in a season where we’ve rarely hit it for long stretches. Then you look around the Premier League and realise plenty of sides are dropping points, playing within themselves, and surviving on fine margins. We’re not alone in looking a bit off. We’re just Liverpool, so the spotlight is harsher.

Last season wasn’t “easy”, we were just excellent

Opposition fans love to rewrite history when it suits them. Last season, we got plenty of stick for “running away with it” because the league was supposedly poor. But anyone who watched week in, week out knows the truth. You don’t walk a title by accident. You do it by being relentless, by winning when you’re not at your best, and by setting standards other teams can’t live with.

That’s why the current dip stands out. We’ve seen what excellent looks like. We’ve lived it. So when it’s sloppy, when the press is half a second late, when the final ball feels rushed, it nags at you.

Arsenal match: the reminder we’re not miles off

Take the Arsenal game as a snapshot. They’re clear at the top, the side everyone’s measuring themselves against, and yet we held them off comfortably enough. More than that, there were long spells in the second half where we looked the better team. Not in a “backs to the wall” way either, but in that familiar Liverpool way where we push the play up the pitch and start asking proper questions.

So what does that tell you? The ceiling is still there. The issue is how rarely we reach it.

No clear plan, but still in the race

The worry is the lack of a settled identity. Too many performances suggest there’s no established plan, or at least no plan we execute consistently. The football can feel improvised: poor spacing, loose decisions, and an attack that doesn’t always know where the next chance is coming from.

Yet in the wider context of the league, we’re still right up there. City are City. Arsenal have that knack of eking out wins. After that, it’s a scrap, and we’re not far off being the best of the rest if we can find any sort of groove.

That’s the bittersweet bit. Champions League qualification would keep the sponsors happy and the money ticking over. From a club ledger perspective, it’s fine. From a football perspective, it feels like settling. And it shouldn’t have to be that way.

Written by West Derby Wanderer IV: 16 January 2026