The Liverpool squad will return to the AXA Training Centre today after some well earned rest and ahead of a key period for the Reds
KIRKBY, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 13: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Alexis Mac Allister, Ibrahima Konaté and Hugo Ekitike of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on February 13, 2026 in Kirkby, England. (Photo by Nikki Dyer – LFC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Liverpool’s players return to training today with perceptions and expectations having very much shifted since the start of the season.
But there will now be renewed determination and belief among Arne Slot’s charges a difficult campaign clouded by uncertainty and disappointment can end with a silver lining.
The Reds boss gave his squad several days off after they responded to the demoralising late defeat against Manchester City 10 days ago with a hard-earned 1-0 Premier League triumph at Sunderland followed by Saturday evening’s 3-0 FA Cup fourth round success at home to Brighton.
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It may well prove if not a pivotal week in Liverpool’s campaign, then certainly one of the most important given the examinations that still await.
Evading the Champions League play-offs has given the Reds two free midweeks ahead of what could be a busy run-in towards the end of the season. Slot will hope rare extended time spent both away from the AXA Training Centre to recharge batteries and then at Kirkby to work on finetuning tactics can be well spent.
One matter surely on the agenda is the propensity to start games slowly that was again evident at the weekend. Remarkably, the Reds have still only scored once in the opening 30 minutes of any league game since September and none in the last 10. They’ve leaked seven in the same time period, but only two have come since November.
But that steady approach has proven beneficial, with Liverpool having lost only twice in 19 games in all competitions with those two defeats coming deep into additional time.
After nine losses in 12 during the autumn, the Reds have become much harder to beat and, since the return of Mohamed Salah from the Africa Cup of Nations, are a much more potent threat going forward.
There will continued focus on bringing Jeremie Frimpong back to full fitness to ease the issues at right-back, while ramping up Alexander Isak’s rehabilitation. The £125million striker would have envisaged matters having gone differently during his debut Anfield campaign, but can yet become a welcome attacking option when the schedule intensifies next month.
Liverpool have at least 15 games remaining. They will hope it is much nearer 23, given that total would mean progress to the finals of both the FA Cup and Champions League.
While the Reds will only discover on Friday week which of their four possible opponents – Juventus, Galatasaray, Atletico Madrid and Club Brugge – they will face in next month’s Champions League round of 16, they know Wolves must be overcome in the FA Cup fifth round ahead of those two ties just a few days after a Tuesday Premier League visit to Molineux.
That forms one of six away trips in the top flight that starts on Sunday with a clash at Nottingham Forest, whose 3-0 victory at Anfield in November was the nadir for Liverpool this season. Indeed, Slot is yet to beat Forest as Reds boss.
In a quirk of the fixture list, all six remaining home games are against London sides – West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, Fulham, Crystal Palace, Chelsea and, on the final weekend, Brentford.
Three of Liverpool’s last four games in May come against the teams immediately above them in the table, with the Anfield clash against Chelsea sandwiched by trips to Manchester United and Aston Villa.
The challenge now is to ensure those matches count in the battle for Champions League qualification. And with all five of their Premier League games between now and the late March international break coming against teams currently in the bottom seven, Liverpool can give themselves the platform for the final push.
Tortuous and desperate it may have been at times, but this season is far from over for Slot and his players.
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