When Everyone Looks Off, It’s Not Just Form

There’s a point where “players out of form” stops being a neat explanation and starts sounding like a convenient one. If it’s three or four having a wobble, fine. That happens over a season. But when it feels like the majority are playing within themselves, making the same mistakes, and looking unsure of what the next phase is meant to be, you can’t keep pinning it all on individual performance.

That’s the heart of it for me. Outside of Dom and Ekitike, it’s hard to make a convincing case that anyone is genuinely having a good season. And when the list of under-performers starts creeping towards “basically everyone”, you’ve got to ask the uncomfortable question: what’s causing it?

Identity first, everything else second

Liverpool sides at their best have a feel to them. You know what you’re watching. Whether it’s the press, the tempo, the way we trap teams, or just the sheer relentlessness off the ball, there’s usually an identity you can hang your hat on.

This season, it’s felt foggy. Not every week, not every half, but often enough that it sticks. You get spells where it looks like we’re trying to play one way, then a spell where we’re doing something completely different, then we drift back into the same patterns that weren’t working. That’s what makes it so hard to buy the argument that it’s “just” the lads not performing.

Slot’s tweaks don’t seem to stick

The frustration isn’t simply that Arne Slot has had a tough period. Every manager does. It’s that even after acknowledging shortcomings publicly, the changes haven’t felt committed. We might see a tweak for a game, or even a half, and you think, right, we’ve learned. Then it snaps back. Same approach, same risk points, same issues reappearing like clockwork.

And the substitutions, at times, have felt like wild calls rather than proper in-game management. You can accept a brave change that doesn’t work. What’s harder to accept is when it feels disconnected from what’s happening on the pitch.

Context matters, but it doesn’t excuse everything

Of course there’s context. Every season has its baggage. The fan mention of knock-on effects, injuries and a busy churn around the squad is part of modern football, and it absolutely impacts rhythm and confidence.

But that context can’t be the shield for everything. If supporters can see structural problems, then the players can as well, and that stuff seeps into performances. That’s when a dip stops looking like random bad form and starts feeling like something deeper.

I’m not big on the “sack him mid-season” energy either. Liverpool historically don’t operate like that. Still, it’s telling how quickly the conversation has shifted, and how widely Slot’s decisions have been questioned by fans and pundits alike. That doesn’t happen for no reason.

Written by chewysuarez7: 22 December 2025