Gareth Taylor on challenge facing him at Liverpool: “Really, really tough” | OneFootball

Credit: Liverpool X

Liverpool go into 2026 bottom of the Barclays Women’s Super League and out of the Subway Women’s League Cup.

And they were knocked out in ignominious fashion, falling 9-1 to Chelsea at St Helens on Sunday.

After the match, head coach Gareth Taylor spoke to the media about the size of the task facing him if he is to turn things round in the second half of the season – admitting it was a “different type of challenge” than he had faced previously.

“The increased level of logic that I use is really important in these moments because the first person I always question is myself,” he said, according to the club’s official website, “and you want it to be better, you want it to improve. That’s why I’m here: to make things better than what they are currently.

“Of course, it’s really difficult to do it on your own, you need certain levels of support that’s going to allow you to do that, and we’ll find out where we are in January.”

Gareth Taylor: We can’t flick a switch and change things

Taylor has already spoken at length about requiring support in the transfer market when the window opens, and he hinted that he was still confident that backing would come.

However, he was clear that getting out of the current rut would require more than a few players added to the squad – and reiterated that the Reds had suffered several injuries to key players over the first half of the season.

“We’ve identified targets we want to bring to the club, of course, but I don’t think it’s something that’s going to be able to flick a switch and change,” he said. “There needs to be probably a lot of improvements and probably getting to the summer, retaining our status [in the top flight] is going to be really, really important because then that allows you to be able to do more.

“I think you’re limited with the amount of players you can bring in during this January window as well, it’s quite limited in that sense. With all of the injuries we have, I’d love to bring in what Chelsea probably have, a second starting eleven.”

He explained: “I think January is really important. We’re all really aware of what needs to improve. The thing they can impact is obviously looking after themselves and controlling what they can control.

“So, with their break, they will have a few days but they need to obviously maintain levels of fitness because we come straight back in to a busy programme in January.”

Liverpool start 2026 on Sunday, 11th January when they host London City Lionesses in the WSL.