Liverpool's Title Chances: Predictions and Insights for the Season
Liverpool, once the darlings of the BBC prediction panel, are no longer being pencilled in as champions by default.
Last season, 22 of 35 pundits tipped them to win the title. Only three thought they would finish lower than second. This time, the mood has shifted. Of 28 predictors, just four believe Liverpool will end up higher than third.
The optimism has been replaced by caution.
Hitzlsperger backs Iraola’s style
Thomas Hitzlsperger still leans towards Liverpool being serious contenders. He has them down as runners-up.
"I've gone for them to finish second because I really like the way Iraola's teams play," he says. The admiration is clear. The new manager’s high-energy, front-foot football has won him plenty of fans.
Hitzlsperger also admits there is a touch of personal bias. He is desperate to see Florian Wirtz deliver the kind of season many expected from him last year. If that happens under Andoni Iraola, Liverpool’s ceiling rises quickly.
Murphy cools title talk
Danny Murphy is less bullish. He has Liverpool third and senses a club in transition rather than one ready to reclaim the crown immediately.
"Liverpool might need a bit more time before they are challenging for the title again," he says, cutting through the romanticism around a new era at Anfield.
The big question hangs over Mohamed Salah’s legacy and how Liverpool intend to replace it. Murphy wonders whether the club feel they have already done enough by signing Victor Munoz and potentially handing a bigger role to Rio Ngumoha, or whether a marquee move is still coming.
Bradley Barcola, at Paris St-Germain, is the type of name being floated. Someone like that, Murphy suggests, could still arrive in the next few days and change the conversation entirely.
Smith flags defensive doubts
Sue Smith is more cautious still. She places Liverpool fourth and circles one area in red pen: the back line.
She accepts the obvious jump Iraola has made. "I know it's a completely different level and expectation managing Liverpool and it's going be interesting to see how he does in that sort of step up," she says.
Her judgement is rooted in what he did at Bournemouth, where she feels he was "brilliant". That work has earned him this chance. The concern, though, refuses to go away.
"Defensively is my concern, though. Especially the right-hand side."
So Liverpool enter the season under a different kind of scrutiny. Not as presumptive champions, but as a talented, intriguing project whose fate may hinge on how quickly Iraola adapts, how securely that right flank holds, and whether a true heir to Salah walks through the door before the window slams shut.
