LIVERPOOL 0 – 0 LEEDS UNITED

Pre-Match

New year, new Liverpool? Aside from the very obvious bright spot that was winning the Premier League last season, 2025 was generally not the best year for Liverpool Football Club—and that title, impressive as it was, was won almost entirely on the strength of an outstanding autumn back in the foggy pre-history of 2024.

For the most part, 2025 was marked by slumping performances, a degrading press, and a gradual loss of identity with the squad starting to come apart at the seems by the end of it, aka late November. Somewhere along the way, Liverpool stopped being a team trying to win and became nervous, static, and at best playing just not to lose. And in the midst of it all, of course, there was the tragedy that was the loss of Diogo Jota over the summer looming far larger than the football itself.

December, though, brought with it a few hopeful shoots of optimism. At the very least, results improved—albeit with some big questions about performances and identity and all the rest remaining. For the first time in a while, though, it felt like there just might be a foundation there. Now the question was if the Reds could build on it and start 2026 on a positive note.

First Half

It wasn’t the greatest start for the home side in Red, unfortunately, with an overcomplicated Liverpool goal kick in the opening minutes leading to a turnover leading to an unnecessary Conor Bradley foul and Leeds set-piece leading to an opening ten minutes that saw the visitors holding both the bulk of possession and clearly the more threatening side in attack any time they moved forward.

Eventually, though, Liverpool did settle in, holding possession well but with movement and the pace of passing often slowing down in the final third and failing to cause Leeds any real problems. At times, the tactical approach appeared to be to get him the ball and stand around watching to see if Hugo Ekitike could do a madness. Execpt for when it was time to stand around and watch to see if Florian Wirtz or Jeremie Frimpong could do similar.

Which to be fair has often worked of late and almost worked again here with Eikitike massively unlucky—or perhaps massively naive for staying on his feet—to not to win a penalty with the Leeds defender draped all over him as he pushed towards goal a quarter of an hour into the match.

After that, the game mostly ticked along to the theme, with Liverpool holding more of the ball and looking the better side but without any real clear cut chances to show for it—aside from a cross Ekitike managed to bundle away from the goal when anything on target would have resulted in the opener—a state that probably would’ve had both sides feeling at least relatively positive, the Reds able to say they were better, probably deserved to be up, and working to tire their opponents while said opponents could point to a level scoreline away at Anfield.

Second Half

The positive for Liverpool to start the second half was that they didn’t drop off massively and hand momentum back to Leeds. The negative was that it was still mostly the case of a too static Liverpool side holding possession without making much of it. If there was a tweak, it was Conor Bradley playing higher up the pitch, leading to the right back at times being the main attacking focal point. It did not lead to an abundance of scoring chances.

Meanwhile, any of individual promise brought to first half proceedings by Ekitike, Wirtz, and Frimpong largely seemed to dry up after the break. By the time changes came in the 67th minute, it was getting hard to see where a Liverpool goal might come from. Those changes, though, with Milos Kerkez, Alexis Mac Allister, and Cody Gakpo all coming on, didn’t do much to change the lukewarm Europa League away day in Turkmenistan vibes that had taken over the match.

Long gone were the individual efforts of the first half and all that was left was Liverpool slowing down play any time they got the chance while showing no real movement off the ball that might offer options to teammates or force Leeds to chase and perhaps be pulled out of position. In the end, the Reds might reasonably say that of the two sides they deserved to win more—based on expected goals, possession, and all the rest. But with the clock ticking down and a chance to actually win the game there for the taking, they showed little interest or intent.

Liverpool had the better players and held more of the ball, but there remained no real threat. No movement, no pace, no real cutting edge. The best chance of the closing stages fell to Leeds, resulting in a goal chalked off for a narrow offside. In the end, then, the final whistle blew with the scoreline unchanged from kickoff. Nil-nil, and feeling as though it had all rather been a bit of a waste of everyone’s time.

Final Thoughts

Frimpong is fast and Wirtz was impressive in the first half at least, as was Ekitike—though at times it can feel as though when any of them do get the ball, everyone else just stops to watch. It all felt a little bit stale, though, and a new year did not bring with it a return to a more intense or exciting Liverpool. It still felt a Liverpool side set up and playing not to lose rather than to win. And hey, it sucked to watch but I guess at least they managed that?

New year, same Liverpool.