If you follow me on BlueSky or have seen any of my TikTok videos, you will know that I’ve pulled no punches when it comes to Liverpool’s transfer business. The Reds have got things wrong two windows in a row in my opinion, meaning that it will take an almighty dose of luck for this season to be anything other than a transition one. I think that Jamie Carragher was exactly right that you would wait for Trent Alexander-Arnold to recover, but you don’t wait for Conor Bradley to get over the injury that he’s suffered. Even if he makes it back earlier than expected, we have no idea what state he’s going to be in, whilst he was also injury-prone well before this one came along. Whilst Jeremy Frimpong might have been an excellent opportunistic purchase, it’s clear that he isn’t physically robust enough to cope with the physical nature of the Premier League, whilst Kostas Tsimikas has never been good enough over on the left flank.
Finally, Liverpool fans can see the back of Richard Hughes.
Quite simply, he was completely out of his depth as Director of Football. His tenure was underwhelming, his decision-making was questionable, and he never looked like the right man for the job.
Good riddance. 🔴
— al196.bsky.social (@al196.bsky.social) 5 September 2026 at 12:30
We all know that Alisson Becker isn’t going to be here for much longer, but Giorgi Mamardashvili hasn’t shown any sign that he’s good enough to replace the Brazilian. Then there are the issues in attack, where the manager has been clear that he needs fast attacking wingers and has only really been given one in the form of Bradley Barcola. Alexander Isak showed against Ipswich Town precisely why you pay the big bucks for someone who can stick the ball into the back of the net, yet we don’t have any serious backup for him as long as Hugo Ekitike is out injured. Like with Bradley, we know neither when he’ll be back, nor what state he’ll be in when he reappears, so not bringing in a striker, even on a short-term basis, may well prove to be folly. Perhaps the owners are happy enough with a transition season, especially as they appear to be organising their escape place, but it isn’t ideal for supporters nor for our ageing players.
A Clinical Attack
I have been amongst the biggest critics of Cody Gakpo in recent years, mainly because I have grown so very tired of seeing him smash the ball either into a defender or else over the bar. As is always the case when I’m critical of a Liverpool player, though, I am absolutely delighted to see that he’s begun this season as though he’s on a personal mission to make me look like a fool. If we get the Gakpo of two years ago, where he helped fire the Reds towards the Premier League title, then I will be the first to congratulate him. His two assists for Alexander Isak were excellent, demonstrating just why it is that a decent number of supporters were so concerned about the possibility of him ending up at Manchester City. We all expected Florian Wirtz to be the person picking passes to Isak out with the outside of his boot, so the fact that it’s been Gakpo doing it is great news. It suggests that we’ve got an attack that is learning to play together, which is excellent to see.
Alexander Isak was the top-scoring #FPL forward in Gameweek 3 🤝
13 points, and Fulham (H) is next up… 👀
— fpl-mirror.bsky.social (@fpl-mirror.bsky.social) 6 September 2026 at 20:36
I’m not going to suggest that Wirtz was brilliant against Ipswich Town, because he demonstrably wasn’t. Yet I also have to confess to being slightly confused by people online saying that he was ‘crap’ and that he’s a ‘waste of money’. He is definitely not producing at the level that you’d hope a player with his price tag would be able to produce, but he’s still covering a huge amount of ground and being a constant thorn in the side of the opposition. I thought he did some lovely stuff, which will only get better as he and the other attackers get on the same wavelength. Meanwhile, Isak is showing the reason why the Reds were happy to wait for him last summer and splash more than £100 million on his signature. The goalkeeper probably could’ve done better with his first, but it was hit with enough venom to suggest that he might have struggled regardless. His second, meanwhile, was a demonstration of the quick-footedness that we all want to see much more of.
Defensively Solid
It is really easy to go down the road of saying that it was ‘only Ipswich’, but this is a team that defeated Sunderland with ease and scored two against Manchester United, so they know where the back of the net is. In truth, the Reds held them at arm’s length throughout and never really looked likely to concede. Yes, another referee might have decided to send Jeremy Jacquet off and we needed Alisson to produce a top save at one point, but that’s why you have a goalkeeper in the first place and the referee was more than generous to the Tractor Boys in the rest of the game to mean that not reaching for the red card was about the only thing that he did right for us. The use of Ronald Araújo at right-back was a clever move from the manager, negating some of the height and strength that Ipswich Town turned to to try to get a rise out of us. He looks like a decent player and I can definitely envision a world in which we decide to buy him at the end of his loan.
Steven Gerrard: “I look at Liverpool and I think there’s still one area that needs addressing. They need a specialist defensive midfielder. They need someone who can do the ugly side of the game. Someone aggressive, someone who can win duels and protect that defence.”
— Premier League News (@plnews.bsky.social) 30 August 2026 at 11:51
Whilst I have no time whatsoever for neither the style of play nor the antics that Mikel Arteta gets from his players, they did show last season that titles are built on a solid defence. As Virgil van Dijk begins to be aged out of the Liverpool starting line-up, other players are going to have to stand up and produce levels of leadership that will allow us to collect more than a few clean sheets. Without Mohamed Salah, we lack the number of goals that we might need in order to be able to challenge at the top of the table, so being able to win a game one or two nil will be a big help. There are unquestionably sterner tests to come than from Ipswich Town, but the performance on Friday night was such that we can look to build on it moving forwards. Next up for the manager is the test of Atlético Madrid, which will not only present him with a different challenge altogether, but also his own debut managing in the Champions League. We’ll know more about where we’re at on Thursday.
Solid breakdown. The wider point about momentum is the bit I keep coming back to, because early-season predictions can change dramatically once form and injuries start stacking up.