NEVER before have the reigning Premier League champions changed half of their first-choice starting line-up immediately after winning the title.
And never before has any club splashed out as much as £452.5million in one transfer window.
Arne Slot is under pressure to get his mega-money Liverpool side firing
The Reds will amazingly be underdogs when they face Man United this weekend
So , who broke the British transfer record twice this summer, are in uncharted territory.
It is no surprise, then, that they are experiencing a blip — the first of reign — before they hand a warm welcome to their old chums on Sunday afternoon.
This will be the first time two English clubs with 20 titles apiece have ever met and — do not adjust your screen — United will head into the match in better form than their bitter rivals.
Although Liverpool do still boast a 100 per cent home record, while United have so far beaten only one team who weren’t in the Championship last season — and even they had ten men for 85 minutes.
United also haven’t won at Anfield in almost a decade.
So let’s not get too excited about the prospect of Liverpool being knocked off their f***ing perch just yet.
But after successive defeats at , Galatasaray and , last season’s title looks very much like a Jurgen Klopp production.
Slot’s own filthy-rich team have not looked particularly good so far. This next month, which also includes clashes with Manchester City and Real Madrid, will tell us much about what the Dutchman is made of.
The Reds got away with a string of late winners in the opening weeks of this season — but those shiny new signings are failing to sparkle and the defence is sieving goals.
If there is any smugness from Klopp, he will keep it well hidden and he has been in the German media insisting that Florian Wirtz — the first of those two record signings — is a ‘once-in-a-century talent’. Yet for Slot, a derby victory on Sunday is essential.
The summer was tumultuous and tragic for Liverpool. The impact of Diogo Jota’s death can never be overstated and clearly overshadows any assessment of the club’s sweeping personnel changes.
Much of that transformation was unavoidable — Trent Alexander-Arnold ran down his contract, Luis Diaz had just a year left on his Anfield deal, Andy Robertson had been fading and Darwin Nunez simply wasn’t good enough.
But two months into the season, Slot’s new recruits show little sign of clicking.
Playmaker Wirtz, a £116.5m buy from Bayer Leverkusen, has failed to register a league goal or assist, while £130m Isak is misfiring after downing tools on Tyneside and missing most of pre-season.
Alexander Isak has been a shadow of his former Newcastle self
Florian Wirtz is yet to score or assist after his move from Germany
Full-backs Jerome Frimpong and Milos Kerkez — £69.5m the pair — are struggling badly.
Even the one noticeable early settler, £79m Hugo Ekitike, was monstered by Slot after being sent off for taking his shirt off in a Carabao Cup tie.
Wirtz, Frimpong and Ekitike all arrived from the Bundesliga — the Premier League’s favourite high-end shopping mall — and are proving that success in Germany is no guarantee of glory in England.
See also Liverpool’s Naby Keita and Loris Karius, as well as Timo Werner, Jadon Sancho, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Christian Pulisic and Sebastien Haller to name but a few.
So the next month is a serious test of Slot’s abilities, after last season’s happy inheritance from Klopp.
Jeremie Frimpong is yet to fill Trent Alexander-Arnold’s boots
Milos Kerkez has also struggled to impress at Anfield
The German constructed such a solid, workaholic team, then rebuilt a mighty midfield in 2023 — his final summer in charge — by recruiting Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Wirtz’s arrival was always going to change Liverpool’s shape, moving away from the Klopp model which did not include a genuine No 10.
Likewise, fitting Isak and Ekitike into the same team always looked difficult and there will be bruised egos among those heavily price-tagged signings.
Not to mention, the biggest ego of all, Mo Salah, who spent most of last season moaning about the supposed lack of a new contract offer and, having finally signed one, has looked way out of his comfort zone amid all the chopping and changing.
Liverpool have too many world-class players to keep on losing matches. The key question in their bid to win back-to-back titles is: Do they have a world-class manager?
FANS DIG TOO MUCH
THOMAS TUCHEL’S dig at England fans after the win over Wales on Thursday showed the German still hasn’t figured out a few bleeding obvious facts.
That the FA do extraordinarily well to sell out the vast majority of home fixtures, given nobody really cares about England other than at major finals.
And that England games at Wembley are largely an opportunity for parents to take kids to watch a game.
Young children get bored very quickly, the queues for Wembley Park Tube station are biblical and, on a school night, everyone is planning their exit soon after half-time.
Thomas Tuchel was wrong to criticise fans for being quiet
GAME TOO FAR
ENGLAND have piddled their way through this World Cup qualifying group.
They are yet to concede a goal and will officially reach next summer’s tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico with two games to spare when they defeat the no-hopers of Latvia tonight.
So just imagine how much tension and jeopardy there will be in such qualifying campaigns once the World Cup finals are expanded from 48 to 64 teams.
Because that is what is currently being considered.
It’s almost as if Fifa are more interested in quantity than quality. Especially the quantity of the TV rights.
YOU AVIN’ A SCARF?
IT CAME as no great surprise to me Tottenham are charging £140 for a scarf in their club shop.
Last season, while covering an England press conference at the Spurs training ground, there was no sign of the free tea us media types usually get — and the quoted price of a cuppa was TWENTY-ONE POUNDS.
A quid for the drink and £20 for the reusable vessel. Despite having a tea addiction, I made my excuses and left.
It’s no surprise Tottenham are charging £140 for a scarf in their club shop
BUSINESS SECRETS OF THE FAROES
CONGRATULATIONS to the puffin-munchers of the Faroe Islands — a tiny nation of 55,000 blubber-eating souls — who scored the greatest result in their history by defeating the Czech Republic on Sunday.
Martin Agnarsson’s late winner means the Faroes have an outside chance of reaching the World Cup finals.
If they do, they will surely play — and defeat — our Scottish friends.
WOMBLES HOLD A CHOON
AS part of my attempt to re-enter the 92 Club, I dragged family and friends to AFC Wimbledon versus Port Vale on Saturday to visit my 84th current Football League ground.
It was the fifth different place I have seen a team called Wimbledon play a home match. Although Dons fans will not count one of those — the National Hockey Stadium at Milton Keynes.
The in-form Dons had an off-day and were lucky to earn a 1-1 draw. However there is much to like about the Cherry Red Records Stadium at the club’s spiritual home, Plough Lane.
Sight lines are excellent and the atmosphere decent. The food and drink options are a million times better than many top-flight grounds. There was also a man dressed as a Womble cheerleading by banging on a wheelie bin.
They were trailblazers at the whole recycling game, down Wimbledon Common way.
But best of all was the choice of music — the BBC Grandstand theme before kick-off and the ITV football classic Aztec Gold before the second half. Absolute choons.
Wimbledon were decent value for money at the weekend
BACK IN BUSINESS
THE Premier League returns on Saturday after another turgid international break.
And, for me, the game of the weekend will be the over-achievers derby of Crystal Palace v Bournemouth.
Palace reside in sixth, the Cherries are fourth.
Their outstanding managers, Oliver Glasner and Andoni Iraola, will probably face off in a Bayern Munich v Real Madrid Champions League final before long.
