Liverpool's Title Hopes: Predictions and Concerns

Liverpool, once the darlings of the pre-season prediction game, are suddenly yesterday’s certainty.

Last year, 22 of 35 BBC pundits tipped them to win the title. Only three thought they would finish outside the top two. This time the mood has flipped. Out of 28 predictors, just four believe Liverpool will end higher than third. The expectation has cooled, even if the intrigue has not.

Faith in Iraola – with caveats

Thomas Hitzlsperger still sees something stirring at Anfield. He has Liverpool down as runners-up, backing Andoni Iraola to translate his high-energy, front-foot football onto a much bigger stage.

“I’ve gone for them to finish second because I really like the way Iraola’s teams play,” he says, pointing to a style that impressed him at Bournemouth. There is a personal angle too: Hitzlsperger is desperate to see Florian Wirtz finally explode in the way many thought he would last season. If that happens in a Liverpool shirt, his prediction starts to look a lot less bold.

The optimism is not universal.

A step back before a step up?

Danny Murphy pegs Liverpool for third and sounds a note of caution. For him, this is a team in transition rather than one ready to rip the title away immediately.

“Liverpool might need a bit more time before they are challenging for the title again,” he argues. The big question, in his eyes, hangs over the right flank and the post-Mohamed Salah era. Have Liverpool already done enough by bringing in Victor Munoz and potentially expanding Rio Ngumoha’s role? Or are they lining up something bigger in the market?

Murphy namechecks Paris St-Germain’s Bradley Barcola as the kind of profile that could change the conversation if Liverpool move decisively in the coming days. Until that picture clears, he stops short of calling them champions-in-waiting.

Brilliant at Bournemouth, exposed at Anfield?

Sue Smith goes a step further and pushes Liverpool down to fourth. She is impressed by Iraola, but wary of the scale of the leap he is taking.

Managing Bournemouth is one thing. Managing Liverpool, with the weight of history and expectation, is something entirely different. “It’s going be interesting to see how he does in that sort of step up,” she says, before quickly adding that on the evidence so far, Iraola has been “brilliant”.

Her concern is blunt and specific: the defence, and particularly the right-hand side. The aggressive, adventurous approach that worked so well at Bournemouth could leave Liverpool exposed if the balance is not right. In a title race defined by fine margins, that vulnerability is enough for her to nudge them out of the top three.

The verdict from the pundits is clear: the aura of inevitability around Liverpool has gone. The talent is there, the coach is admired, and the ceiling remains high. But questions over defence, recruitment, and the void Salah will eventually leave are loud enough to drag expectations down a notch.

Whether Iraola turns that doubt into fuel or finds it justified will define Liverpool’s season – and perhaps the Premier League title race itself.