Supporters would love nothing more than to see Liverpool throw caution to the wind and play with the kind of suffocating intensity that Jurgen Klopp instilled to such an emphatic effect over nine years, but that is unrealistic.
Andoni Iraola has inherited a struggling and imbalanced squad. The Spanish tactician is learning on the job, but three draws and one win to kick off the Premier League campaign illustrates the task at hand. There is a lot wrong across this squad, and it doesn’t feel very likely that the Reds will be challenging the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City for the title this term.
Instead, Liverpool must ensure passage into the Champions League next season. Right now, that looks like the expected course for this side, whose decline and inability to keep pace with the top-of-the drawer in the Premier League a product of their declining transfer strategy.
How Liverpool’s transfer strategy has plummeted
Once, Liverpool were envied across the Premier League, the inimitable target-hitters in the transfer market. As Jurgen Klopp’s dynasty lifted off the ground, it felt as if FSG could do no wrong in the window, hitting the nail on the head almost every time they took their purses from their pockets.
But this current ensemble is disjointed and uncoordinated. No wonder Iraola is struggling to get them to dance to his beat, one month into the 2026/27 campaign.
Some of the recent decisions have left fans scratching their heads. Everyone could see that a new robust, ball-playing midfielder was needed this summer, but sporting director Richard Hughes, who has now left the club and joined Al Hilal in the Saudi Pro League, instead signed two primarily left-sided forwards, also failing to land a like-for-like replacement for Mohamed Salah, who quit and signed for Trabzonspor in Turkey.
Saturday’s drab draw against Fulham proved an illustration of exactly how shoddy this group have become. In attack, Liverpool were stale, and they weren’t all that convincing in defence either, with the full-backs in particular flattering to deceive.
Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, both signed by Hughes last summer, are a weak pairing.
However, these aren’t the only Redmen being hounded for their performances. Another, costlier misfire continues to impede Liverpool are they fight to return to the top.
Liverpool flop is becoming the new Darwin Nunez
In 2023, Liverpool signed Darwin Nunez from Benfica in a deal rising to a club-record £84m. Klopp had been coloured impressed by the Uruguayan striker’s Champions League performances the season before. He bagged against Liverpool that year, posting 34 goals from 41 games in total.
His time on Merseyside was largely frustrating. Moments of brilliance gave way to the monotonous beat of so many misses, of chances not taken and questionable decision-making in the final third.
|
Nunez’s Wastefulness in the Premier League |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Season |
Goals |
Big Chances Missed |
|
24/25 |
5 |
8 |
|
23/24 |
11 |
27 |
|
22/23 |
9 |
20 |
Now, sadly, the Liverpool persuasion are beginning to fear that lightning has struck twice with Florian Wirtz, who arrived from Bayer Leverkusen last summer for quite the pretty penny, but has yet to come anywhere close to living up to the hype.
There have certainly been mitigating circumstances, but the German international, 23, is becoming a big problem, and with confidence in his ability to turn things around starting to waver, there’s a real sense that Wirtz might be approaching Nunez territory – the Uruguay striker was tipped to turn things around after his first year, but he never managed to sustain elite form in the danger area.
Yes, Wirtz has been thrown into a dysfunctional team whose incongruities have remained even after FSG fired Slot and replaced him with a more direct and aggressive manager in Iraola, but he hasn’t done enough to justify the nine-figure price tag that was paid to bring him to a title-winning team.
These are the facts: Wirtz cost Liverpool £115m to prise away from Bayer Leverkusen, where he was championed as an invincible and a superstar. Since signing for the Anfield side, he is reported to have pocketed £200k per week, and when combining the figures together, he’s already cost the club £128m. If he sees out his contract, then including bonuses, he will have cost them an extra £52m on top of the transfer fee. It’s staggering, it really.
Of course, shirt sales and continued revenue boosted by his affiliation with the club leave plenty of ground for this to become a good signing, but as things are, Wirtz must accept he is a steeply underperforming big-money star, someone cut from Nunez’s cloth, rather than Virgil van Dijk or Alisson Becker.
This isn’t the right time to write Wirtz off. We need him to find form quickly if Liverpool are going to bounce back.
However, the former Leverkusen superstar has left a lot to be desired since joining the club one year ago, and to say he’s failed to provide Liverpool with bang for their buck when considering the total £128m outlay would be an understatement indeed.