Scouser Tommies: SHOOTS OF OPTIMISM
In this final Scouser Tommies episode of 2025, Jim Boardman and Jay Reid look back not just at the last week of Liverpool action but at a record-breaking roller-coaster of a calendar year, with the highs of that title win starting to feel like a lifetime ago when the Reds went through a slump they looked incapable of getting out of. There’s also a look ahead, not just to the busy festive period but to the year in front of us.
Two wins, with two clean sheets, is more like we’d expect from the Reds, and although it doesn’t yet make up for that terrible streak, as Jay points out, there are some shoots of optimism. The results are better, the performances have improved, but perhaps most importantly there has finally been a tactical shift from the boss that gets the best out of the squad he has at his disposal.
The optimism is tempered with caution, because whilst the new tactics have been fruitful, it’s only a matter of time before these are sussed out too by opposition bosses. For Jim, it is vital that Slot reacts if and when that does happen, because during that slump Liverpool weren’t just regularly beaten, they were regularly hammered.
Jay is delighted to see Milos Kerkez finally being deployed in a way that we saw him play before he arrived at Anfield, something he’s asked for all season on this show. Similarly, on the opposite flank, Joe Gomez was allowed to play like a full-back - getting an assist too - rather than as a converted centre-back.
Back-to-basics defending and better positional discipline have made a difference, and as Jay points out, so has the freedom and discipline of Jones, Gravenberch, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister to rotate in midfield while ensuring defensive gaps were filled.
Playing the best players in their best positions can also be a huge help to a side that’s struggling. Jim notes that Hugo Ekitiké looks like an "edge-of-the-seat" player, the kind you know will put chances away. The two braces in two successive games are just a part of what he’s offering up front. Isak might be the record signing and might need games to get fit, but, as Jay points out, it won’t have done Hugo’s confidence a lot of good to be dropped for a player who, despite the price tag, is nowhere near ready to be a first-choice Reds striker. His time will come, that much seems certain, but maybe it will come sooner if he’s partnered with the confident and in-form Frenchman.
As we look ahead to a busy festive period - and to 2026 itself - Jay and Jim wonder what the new year might bring. Will the centre-backs get some cover, some competition, maybe even an eventual successor to Virgil? Arne Slot seems safe for now, and the current form is encouraging, but will he still be in his job by the start of the new season? Expectations at Anfield remain high, but there’s a lot of work to be done to live up to them, regardless of what happened last season.
The festive period offers a good chance to make inroads towards meeting those demands. Four games that Liverpool should be able to get at least 10 points from, all in the league as the Champions League has its winter break. One game at a time and all that, but get these four games right and the next one, against Arsenal, may have a very different feel to it than might have been expected a couple of weeks ago.
The first of those four is against Tottenham, a fixture that has had its fair share of goals over the years. The away fixture last term saw Slot’s side concede three, but unlike this season they managed to come away with all three points, bagging six of their own. The home fixture was, of course, memorable for reasons beyond that one match itself and the six goals it featured, because it was the one that finally clinched the title for the Reds.
As always, there’s time to chuckle at the mentality of the old neighbours, who just can’t break out of type.
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