Former Liverpool star Danny Murphy has pinpointed the issues with Arne Slot’s side that have led to the club’s subpar season.
The Reds spent around £450 million in the summer and were coming into the 2025/26 season as the Premier League champions. They were expected to be battling for the title once again, but are currently fifth and fighting for a place in the UEFA Champions League next season.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Murphy has now pointed out the issues at the club that have led to the disappointing season. He believes that the key issue has been the players, who have lacked energy on the pitch.
He is unsure if it is a physical issue or a mental one for the players, but believes that they seem to be trying their best but are unable to reach the levels needed at the club. He said:
“There are lots of problems Liverpool have got. The most obvious one, and I think is becoming more worrying as the weeks go by, is the lack of energy and tenacity, and legs and fighting. It just looks a little bit like [we’re] doing our best – I don’t think they’re deliberately not trying, whether it’s a physical thing or a mental thing.”
Murphy went on to add that the new signings have also not managed to hit the ground running, except for Hugo Ekitike. Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak, who were signed for record fees in the summer, have failed to impress for different reasons and the football-turned-pundit said that it was a key reason for the poor results.
“The new signings haven’t helped. Ekitike has been the only one and Wirtz has started to show a bit, but not enough.”
Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong have also needed time to settle at the club, while the Dutchman has also been dealing with injury issues, forcing Dominik Szoboszlai to slot in at right-back often.
‘Only two players have stepped up this season’
Murphy was quick to praise Szoboszlai for his performances this season, hailing the Hungarian as one of the two players who have managed to maintain their level from the title-winning season. He named Ryan Gravenberch as the other player who has done well in most matches and said:
“Slot is getting a lot of stick for different reasons, but one of the main reasons – and this is his job to motivate as well, so he is partly to blame for this – but the players who did so well for him last year, I would say there are only two who’ve come close or exceeded what they did last year.
“That would be Szoboszlai, and probably Gravenberch has been similar most of the time with the odd bad game here and there, but generally, he’s been pretty solid, pretty good. Everyone else has dropped off.”
Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk’s performances have been highlighted by fans and pundits worldwide, but the others have also not done enough, per Murphy.
Arne Slot needs to take more responsibility than Liverpool players
Murphy went on to state that the players are responsible for the poor results, but slammed Arne Slot for not trying to change things quickly enough. He believes that the manager should be proactive and make the tweaks when things are not working well and said:
“Now players have to take some responsibility – it’s down to you. But also, if the coach sees that and isn’t able to change it, that’s on him. So, there are loads of things wrong, and we talked about earlier, the formation, the tactics, he set the team up completely differently than they did last week.”
Liverpool have lost 10 matches in all competitions this season, more than they managed in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons combined.
