A closer look at Liverpool's worst run of form in over 70 years

A deep dive into how bad things have got at Anfield in recent months

Thu, 27 Nov, 2025 - 17:25

Liverpool's Champions League defeat to PSV Eindhoven left them on their worst run of form in over 70 years.

Here, the Press Association looks at how bad things have got and how they compare.

- After starting their Premier League title defence with five straight wins - and their season, post-Community Shield, with seven - Arne Slot's side then lost four in a row and have not recovered since.

- Starting with their 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace on September 27, Liverpool have lost nine and won three of their last 12 games.

- That includes six defeats out of seven Premier League games, dropping them from first to 12th in the table. They are the first defending champions since Leicester in 2016-17 to lose six of their first 12.

- Europe had provided some respite with wins over Eintracht Frankfurt and Real Madrid but the 4-1 rout by PSV means they have now lost two of their first five Champions League games.

- It was also a third successive defeat by three goals or more, following 3-0 league losses to Manchester City and Nottingham Forest. Both that and the overall run of nine defeats in 12 are the club's worst since the 1953-54 season.

- Liverpool lost 5-1 to both Portsmouth and Manchester United in December 1953, and then 5-2 to West Brom on Christmas Day before stopping the rot with a goalless draw in the Boxing Day rematch.

- That was part of a run of nine defeats in 11, interrupted only by a 5-2 win over Blackpool and that draw with West Brom. All of those came in the league apart from an FA Cup third-round exit against Bolton.

- Following the Blackpool game, Don Welsh's side went 15 games without a win from December until the end of March as they ultimately finished bottom of the First Division and were relegated - the most recent time the club have suffered that fate. Welsh remained in his post until May 1956 before being sacked.

- While their 1953-54 form was even worse than the current run, Liverpool had finished 17th the previous season so it perhaps came as less of a shock than for Slot's defending champions.