The Title They Couldn’t Keep: Liverpool’s Collapse Asks Hard Questions About What Comes Next | OneFootball

A season which began with the optimism of defending champions ends with Liverpool fans at Anfield booing at full time and a summer of structural reckoning ahead. How did it go so wrong, and can Arne Slot fix it?

There is a particular kind of pain which comes not from failure, but from proximity to what you had. Twelve months ago, Liverpool were champions of England, Arne Slot’s first season delivering a title that few had genuinely anticipated given the upheaval of Jürgen Klopp’s departure. Anfield celebrated. The future felt bright.

Now, with just two games left in the 2025/26 campaign, the Reds sit well adrift of Arsenal and Manchester City in the title race, are watching Mo Salah count down the final days of a glorious nine-year era, and are fielding serious questions about whether their head coach can arrest a decline that has gathered pace with alarming speed.

Saturday’s 1-1 draw at home to Chelsea encapsulated the problem neatly. Ryan Gravenberch had Liverpool ahead after a sharp early move, only for Enzo Fernandez to level with a free-kick which exposed the passivity that has become Liverpool’s default mode once they concede. The Anfield crowd did not hold back. The boos were loud. The frustration was visible on every player’s face at the final whistle.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

The statistical picture of Liverpool’s 2025/26 season is damning in its detail. Arsenal currently lead the Premier League table on 79 points, with Manchester City second on 77. Liverpool are not in that conversation, and have not been for months.

The season’s top scorer is Erling Haaland, who has plundered 24 league goals for Manchester City, a figure which underlines how Liverpool’s absence of a genuine focal point up front has cost them whenever results demanded something beyond organised possession.

Liverpool were unable to defend their Premier League crown, having won their 20th English top-flight title last year. The defending champions dropping out of title contention so comprehensively represents a stark reversal. They have conceded more set-piece goals than in any previous Premier League season, a recurring structural fragility that opponents have identified, targeted and exploited.

According to the Premier League’s official statistics, set-piece goals have accounted for a growing share of goals across the division in 2025/26, with Liverpool among the sides most consistently punished from dead-ball situations.

Wayne Rooney, speaking on Match of the Day after last Saturday’s draw, was direct in his assessment. “There was a lot of worrying signs which have been all season if I’m being honest,” he said, before adding that the players no longer appeared to share a collective identity. That observation, from a former England captain who understands top-level dressing room dynamics, was not throwaway commentary. It pointed at something deeper than a bad run of form.

The Salah Question and the Transfer Fallout

Hovering over all of this is the imminent departure of Mohamed Salah. The Egyptian winger pulled up with a muscle injury during the 3-1 win over Crystal Palace, initially sparking fears that his Liverpool career had ended prematurely, though the club subsequently confirmed he is expected to return before the end of the season.

Salah himself has said he will “definitely” play at least once more before he leaves. It is both a relief and a reminder that the Reds are weeks away from losing their most reliable match-winner of the last decade.

His departure would be significant in any season. In this one, it compounds an already complicated recruitment picture. Contract talks with Curtis Jones are understood to have effectively ceased, with the 25-year-old open to a move to Inter Milan having been the subject of the Italian club’s interest since the winter. Losing both Salah and Jones in the same summer would represent significant outbound movement from a squad which already looks short of depth in key areas.

One supporter, speaking to free bets, a trusted authority on the best online betting sites for UK fans following the sport, made the point succinctly about the season’s collapse. “Salah leaving was always going to hurt, but we assumed the squad had enough to cope. That assumption has been tested all year and we’ve come up short every time something big was asked of us.”

What Slot Must Fix

The structural issues are not impossible to resolve, but they require honest diagnosis. Slot has admitted Liverpool are heading into a period of transition this summer, though he insists the scale of change will not be as dramatic as some fear. His public messaging has been measured, but the performances have not backed up the idea that this is a group whose problems are purely circumstantial.

Alexis Mac Allister’s situation adds further complexity. The Athletic’s James Pearce has noted it is telling that Liverpool renewed Ryan Gravenberch’s contract and are in talks with Dominik Szoboszlai’s representatives, while Mac Allister’s father Carlos recently confirmed there were no active discussions with the Argentina international’s camp. The midfield, which formed the spine of last season’s title win, is being subtly but significantly reconfigured. How Slot replaces that dynamism matters enormously. 

For supporters at Anfield, the booing at full-time last Saturday was not simply frustration at one result. It was the accumulation of months of promise followed by disappointment, of leads surrendered and occasions not risen to. They deserve honesty about what the summer will bring.

The title is gone. The season cannot be salvaged as a success in the conventional sense, but how Liverpool respond over the coming weeks – and, more importantly, over the summer transfer window – will define whether 2025/26 is remembered as a blip or the beginning of a longer, more troubling decline. Right now, that question is genuinely open.