Danny Murphy has outlined what he believes would represent a successful season for Liverpool under new head coach Andoni Iraola in 2026/27.
A miserable 2025/26 campaign saw Arne Slot lose his job a year on from winning the Premier League title, with the Reds slumping to a fifth-place finish, just one position and three points ahead of a Bournemouth side led by his successor in the Anfield dugout.
There were quarter-final exits from the Champions League and FA Cup, and we were out of the Carabao Cup in the fourth round, with LFC nowhere near lifting a trophy after they lost the Community Shield on penalties to Crystal Palace.
In an exclusive interview with Empire of the Kop (in association with NetBet Sport), Murphy was asked what’d constitute success for Iraola in his first season in charge at Liverpool.
The former Reds midfielder replied: “My feeling is that at Liverpool Football Club, irrelevant of where you’re at transition-wise with a manager or squad, silverware is always the aim. That’s what Liverpool is about, winning trophies – always has been, always will be.
“In terms of the league, I would suggest a comfortable, consistent top-four placing as the season goes through and that there’s never a horrendous run or a fall outside of that, to be around second, third or fourth. If you end up 10-12 points off the title, you can say you’re improving.
“Even with the new manager coming in and more new players, I don’t think they’ll have enough to challenge Man City and Arsenal. I think that’d be a surprise to most.
“I know Slot did it, which none of us expected, but to have a consistent top-four season where you’re never really out of that and you don’t have any horrendous runs – you’re gonna lose games, but a couple of runs Liverpool went on this season were really poor – and then to win some silverware. That’d probably be one of the domestic cups, unlikely to be the Champions League, but that should be the aim, silverware and a comfortable top-four finish.
“I think the fans would be really happy with that, and also the progression of style. I think Liverpool fans would accept third, fourth or fifth if they’re closer to the top and playing football that they enjoy, and they can see what he’s trying to do. That’s the key element for him.”
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Iraola won’t be expected to emulate Slot and deliver the Premier League title in his first season at Anfield, but he will be tasked with overseeing a discernible improvement upon the Dutchman’s second campaign on Merseyside.
That means finishing higher than fifth in the table and securing more than 60 points, whilst also improving on horrific returns of 12 defeats and 53 goals conceded. In short, it won’t be good enough to limply stumble into a Champions League qualifying berth like we did last month.
In the campaign after Liverpool’s previous fifth-place finish, they came third and won the Carabao Cup in 2023/24, only falling away in the title race after Easter as Manchester City pipped Arsenal to the post.
A similar return under Iraola next term, with the Anfield faithful excited by the football on the pitch in addition to savouring positive results, would be viewed as a significant step in the right direction.
As Murphy said, the ultimate remit at LFC is to win major trophies. A Premier League or Champions League triumph in 2027 seems improbable from our current base, but if the new head coach can bring us closer to such peaks by this time next year, that’d be considered a job well done.
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